Demigod Hunters
by Angel of Darkness1337
Summary: A group of humans that hate the gods and their children, form a group called the Demigod Hunters. During a search for Nico, Annabeth is captured. What will Percy do?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Have I ever mentioned how much demigod dreams suck? Well, in case I haven't, they suck big time! They always have to be visions of things really happening. Just once I'd like to have a dream like a normal person-no monsters or Titans trying to destroy the world. But hey, this is the life of Percy Jackson son of Poseidon. You'd _think _that after defeating Kronos, I'd get some kind of break from saving the world. It's only been a month since we beat Kronos. My life was going great until my stupid demigod dream.

It started like this: I was looking at a forest at night. Leaves were russling, trees were blowing in the night's wind. Crows were scared by something. There were whispering voices all around me. I didn't recognize the voices. A gun fired. My heart jumped. I started pushing through the dark forest-I couldn't see. The voices weren't chasing me. They were running in a different direction. Then the scene shifted. I was standing in a clearing. Someone was pushing toward me. It was Nico! He was wearing his aviator's jacket, black jeans, and a black T-shirt with a skull on it. Nico panted, looking behind him. I looked closer at his clothes-his jacket was really dirty, like he'd been running for a long time. Nico's skull shirt was torn, and so were his jeans. His face had cuts all over it. What had he been in the forest all night?

Nico took a few more short breaths, then started running again. I dashed off after him. Where was he going? "Have to warn Percy!" Nico panted.

"Warn me about what?" I yelled knowing he couldn't hear me. Nico ran on.

Then he tripped on a fallen log. Nico fell head first in the muddy forest floor. "I have to keep going." he told himself.

Nico forced himself to stand up, and keep running. What the heck was _Nico son of Hades_ running from? I didn't think there was any place creeper than the Underworld. Then again, I could be wrong. I chased after him. Nico stopped for a moment, trying to chance his breath. He froze as twigs snapped behind him. Then with all his strength started running again. "HEY! STOP!" a man's voice demanded behind Nico. Another gun fired.

Nico, still running, stretched out his right hand. Skeletons started rising from the ground. They ran in the opposite direction of Nico. He must of been sending them after somebody. Nico grabbed a vine hanging from one of the trees. He tied it around a another tree, so if anyone came by and didn't see it, would trip. "That should hold them, at least long enough for me to escape." Nico grunted.

I could hear bone crunches. The skeletons didn't last very long. Who the heck was Nico running from? It couldn't be Kronos, so who? Could it be a new enemy? Gods, I hoped not.

Nico came to an open valley. Gunshots behind him. "AH!" Nico cried out. Blood dripped on the ground. He was shot. "NO!" I yelled.

Nico's knees buckled and he fell. He leaned against a tree, gripping his wounded arm. His breathing quickened. "PERCY," Nico shouted to the sky, "IF YOU ARE SEEING THIS, THEIR COMING FOR YOU NEXT!"

"WHO?" I yelled at him. He didn't hear me.

"He's over here!" someone yelled.

Everything went black. The last thing I heard was Nico's scream.

"NICO!" I shot up in my bed. "Ow!" Annabeth rubbed her forehead. Oops. "Oh. Sorry, Annabeth." I smiled.

She frowned. "Whatever. Meeting at the Big House, now."

I groaned. What time was it anyway? I glanced at my watch. One'O'clock. Then I realized I had broken a sweat. Nico. I had to find out where he was-help him, if I could. Annabeth shined a flashlight in my eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked with concern.

"Nothing." I lied.

She didn't believe me. Annabeth knew me so well. In case you're wondering if Annabeth should be in her new boarding school right now, she took some time off so she could help out at camp. "Fine. Be like that. Tell me later." Annabeth rolled her.

I threw on my shoes and we headed out the door. "So what's this meeting about anyway?" I rubbed my eyes.

"Don't know. Chiron wouldn't tell until everyone was there." she shrugged.

Most of the campers that were staying over summer, were there. I saw the Stroll brothers, Clarisse, Chris, Pollux, Katie Garner, Jake Mason, and some other new demigods I didn't know yet. "Good. Everyone's here." Chiron said.

"What is this all about, Chiron?" I asked.

"Nico di Angelo is missing." Chiron sighed.

I remembered my dream about Nico running from someone or something. "What do you mean _missing_?" I demanded.

"Who's missing?" Grover yawned walking in. "

Nico left camp a few days ago and no one has heard or seen him since." Chiron said.

"He could of been killed." Clarisse grumbled.

"Nico isn't _dead_." I snapped. "He can't be.

"Percy, I know this is hard for you to hear, but you have to face the possibilities." Chiron told me.

I wouldn't believe Nico was dead. He couldn't be. Shouldn't there be some kind of link or something between Nico and me? Our fathers are brothers after all. "Percy," Annabeth touched my shoulder.

"I want to send out a search team to look for Nico. Anyone volunteer?" Chiron asked.

I my hand shot up into the air. Annabeth's hand went up too. Then Grover's. Chiron smiled. "When do we leave?" I shook Annabeth's hand off my shoulder.

"Tonight, I guess if you want to." Chiron shrugged.

"I don't why you care so much about that kid, Jackson." Clarisse sneered.

"Like you would know. You've never broken a promise has big has I did." I said bitterly.

I wouldn't lose Nico. Not after breaking my promise to him, about keeping his sister safe. I stormed out the door. "Percy, are we leaving now?" Grover asked.

"Yes." I said.

I opened my cabin door, and grabbed my backpack. Annabeth appeared in my doorway. "Percy, what's wrong?" Annabeth demanded.

I sighed. She wouldn't leave me alone until I told her. "Before the meeting, I had a dream. Nico was being chased by something or someone. He's hurt. Who ever was chasing Nico might have him now." I told her. "Nico told me 'They're coming for you next'. Annabeth, who do you think they are?"

She was silent. "I don't know. Was there more than one chasing Nico?" she asked.

"I think."

"It could be some demigods that followed Kronos. There are still a few of them left." Annabeth suggested.

"You should go get ready." I told Annabeth. She nodded weakly and left. I threw on my jeans and a clean shirt. Riptide was laying on my dresser, I picked it up and put it in my pocket. Annabeth and Grover met me by the entrance to Camp Half-Blood. Chiron came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. "Be careful, Percy."

"Thanks." I muttered. Grover, Annabeth, and I walked out of Camp Half-Blood.

_the next morning..._

I woke up when the sun started shining in my eyes. Annabeth was using me as her pillow. I guess, we'd fallen asleep in the forest because I was laying on a tree. Grover was sleeping in a bush. Annabeth was sound asleep. I didn't want to wake her up, but we had to move. "Annabeth." I gently shook her arm.

"Huh?" she grumbled.

"Time to get up." I told her.

She sleepily sat up. I stood up and walked over to Grover. "Come on, G-Man. Time to get up." I yawned.

Grover turned over in his sleep. "Oh no! Grover, I think I see Tyson coming!" Annabeth cried.

Grover shot up like a bullet, "Crap! Don't let him see me!"

Annabeth and I laughed. "He's not coming, we just needed you to wake up." I told him.

His face got red and turned away from me. "Alright, guys. Lets move." Annabeth said.

We made our way to the city. Mortals were crowded in the street. "Where are we going to start?" I groaned looking at all the people.

We pushed our way through the crowded streets. I turned around and some kid ran into me. "Sorry!" he said then ran off.

Five men were chasing him. They were carrying spears. "Follow them!" I told Annabeth and Grover.

It was hard to follow the strangers when you have hundreds of people walking around. I heard a cry come from a side street. The kid that ran into me was fighting all five men. They jabbed at him with their spears. Was he a demigod? "Help!" he yelled at us.

I uncapped Riptide and charged at one of the men. He grunted and pushed me back. "Their demigods!" the man shouted.

Suddenly, the tips of their spears began to glow. The spears had what looked like lightning traveling up and down the spears. "What the-" I didn't finish.

Two of the men charged at me. I blocked one's attacked and threw him into the other. The kid cried out. A lightning spear sticking out of his back. Then the kid fainted. "Who are you guys?!" I demanded.

"You'll find out soon enough." a deep voice laughed.

The biggest manslammed his spear down on Riptide. Quickly looking around, I saw that Grover had knocked the smallest man out cold. Another man was picking up the kid. "Percy!" Annabeth yelled.

Blue lightning passed through her body. "Annabeth!" I cried.

Building up all my strength, I shoved the guy away from me. I charged him and knocked him over. He dropped his spear and it clattered on the cement. When I picked it up I suddenly felt drained of all my energy. How could that happen? I bore the curse of Achilles, wasn't I suppose to be invincible? It was like the spear just took all my energy away. I fell to my knees, no longer able to stand. Riptide landed next to me. "Stupid half-blood." the man sneered.

My hands trembled as I held the spear. Annabeth was laying on the ground. Her eyes were on me. I couldn't do anything. She body teased, she was probably still feeling the pain from the spear. The man in front of me, grabbed the spear from my hands. Then he kicked my back and I hit the ground. "No..." Annabeth tried to yell.

The man pointed his spear at Grover and a needle thing shot out of the end of it. It hit Grover in his shoulder. Lightning raced through his body, like it had Annabeth. My limbs wouldn't move no matter how much I tried to move them. The man next to Annabeth grabbed her hair. He pulled her head so she was looking at him. "She's an Athena brat." he growled.

Then he let go and Annabeth's head fell back to the ground. "Annabeth.." I said.

"Alright, take her." the man next to me nodded.

"No!" I yelled. My throat burned.

The guy Grover had knocked out, was now standing up. He glared at Grover. One guy picked Annabeth up. "Cain, which god for that black haired kid laying on the ground?" one said.

I felt pulling on my hair. "Poseidon," the one called Cain let my hair go.

"Good. John will only have one more Big Three kid to go." the one holding Annabeth grinned.

Annabeth was limp in his arms, but her eyes were still on me. I couldn't let them take her, but I couldn't move. Cain was starting to pick me up, but then he screamed. A knife had sliced his arm. My eyes were starting to close. The last thing I remembered was seeing kids in orange T-shirts.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When I woke up most of the kids from camp were gathered around. I wasn't sure who long I'd been asleep, but everyone looked happy I was awake. Then I remembered Annabeth being captured. When I looked around the room, she was no where to be found. "Where's Annabeth?" I demanded looking at Chiron.

His smile faded. "Percy, I'm sorry. When we got to you guys, they were already taking Annabeth. We couldn't get her." Chiron said.

"And Grover?" I gulped.

"He was injuired like you, but they didn't take him." Chiron pointed to a bed next to me.

Sure enough, Grover was sound asleep. But my thoughts weren't about him. My mind was on Annabeth. Where was she? Who took her and why? "Percy, we need to talk." Chiron touched my shoulder.

The campers cleared out of the room. "Any idea who those guys were?" I asked.

"Yes," Chiron nodded grimly. "By the time we found out who they were, you three had already left. We sent campers out to look for you, when we found you, it was too late."

"Who were they?" I growled.

"They are part of a group of humans that call themselves The Demigod Hunters. It's a group of mortals that has dedicated their lives to the killing of demigods. We don't know who started the group but we believe it has been around for at least six years." Chiron explained.

"That doesn't make any sense! Chiron, if they have been killing half-bloods for that long, there's no way we wouldn't have known about them!" I protested.

"The Demigods Hunters have been killing demigods while they were on quests. That could be the only way that we wouldn't have noticed. We would just assume a monster killed them." he shrugged.

"They took Annabeth. They didn't kill her." I grumbled.

"Percy, you're not going to want to hear this but...You have to consitter the fact that Annabeth could be dead." Chiron told me.

"She's not dead! I would know if she was!" I yelled.

I wouldn't believe Annabeth was dead. I couldn't even think about her being dead! "What about those spears they were using?" I snapped.

"The spears were made ONLY for mortals. Which is why you lost all of your energy as soon as you touched it. It was made so that if a half-blood that mortal was fighting did pick the spear up, they would be drained of their energy. Therefore making them easier to kill." Chiron said.

"Great. So a weapon we can't touch. What about the lightning?"

"The lightning same thing. It won't harm humans but it will do deadly damage to demigods. Percy, you know I see no need for weapons that hurt mortals, like Backbiter. However, in this case we may need to make weapons that hurt both monsters and mortals."

Luke had owned Backbiter. I hated thinking about how Kronos had taken over Luke's body. "So what do you want to do, Chiron?" I asked bitterly. "You want us to start making swords like Backbiter?"

"It's seems to be our only choice to fight these Demigod Hunters."

I didn't want to hurt mortals, but they weren't defenceless. "Are we just going to have the Hephaestus cabin make them?" I asked.

Stupid question. My thoughts wondered to Beckendorf. I missed hanging out with him, but Silena was probably with him. "Yes," Chiron started. "Or you can make them yourselves, I don't really care."

I swung my feet off the bed, "Chiron, I'm going to see if I can find any information on the Demigod Hunters."

I usually wasn't the kind of I-love-to-do-research kind of guy, but Annabeth was my girlfriend. She wasn't just some normal camper to me. I knocked on the Athena cabin's door. One of Annabeth's siblings answered the door. "Oh, hey Percy..." the girl said grimly.

"Uh..hi. Can I use Annabeth's laptop?" I asked stupidly.

"What for?" she looked at me like I was going to steal it.

"I need to find some information on the people that took Annabeth." It wasn't two seconds the girl shoved the Annabeth's laptop into my chest.

"If it's to help find Annabeth then keep it as long as you need it. Just find her, OK Percy?" the girl looked at me with sad stormy eyes.

"OK." I promised.

She shut the door. I wouldn't break another promise this time. Sighing, I turned and started walking to my cabin. When I got there, nothing looked different. I shut the door behind me and laid on my bunk. The laptop made a click noise as I opened the lid. Crap. There was a password. What would Annabeth put as a password? The idea came to me. I typed in S~E~A~W~E~E~D~B~R~A~I~N. Sure enough, that was the password. That was just like Annabeth. I double clicked on the Internet. Google popped up, I typed in _the Demigod Hunters. _Thousands of links popped up. Some of them were Demigod Hunters (wiki), Demigod , and Buy Demigod Hunters at ebay. Why does it always say you can buy crap on ebay, when you can't? I clicked on the Demigod .

The top of the screen had a picture of mortals killing demigods. Lovely. Maybe, it would say who formed the group. There was an opinion on the side that said "Members". When I clicked it, hundreds of names popped up. One name sounded familiar, Cain. His picture appeared on the screen. Brown hair, blue eyes and a scar on his chin. It was the same guy that attacked me. Unable to look at his picture anymore, I clicked on the "Main Page" button. After scrolling down a little, I found the creator of the site. John Martin. He had blond hair and dark brown eyes. The look in his eyes reminded me of Luke's. Hateful. John had a nasty scar from his template to his chin. Cain had a scar on his chin too, I wondered where they got was a small paragraph about him.

_John Martin (see picture left) is the creator of this website._

_He was born in 1982. Martin decided to creat this group after the_

_death of both his paretns, in 1992._

Wow. That was so much information! It made me a little sad, to know his parents were killed, when he was like thirdteen. Deciding to look up John Martin, I went back to google. I found a police report on the death of his parents.

_Mr. and Mrs. Martin's bodies were found at their home. John,_

_the Martins' son, witnessed the murder. He said three teen-_

_agers killed them. When he was asked to give their names,_

_John told us they went to his school. After we pulled up the _

_school's __record, we found no students by those names. Teachers _

_claim __they never had students by those names, either. John was _

_suspected __as the murderer, but we found nothing to link him to _

_their murder._

_The two parents were killed by, what John says, swords. There were_

_no swords or draggers found at the scene._

The swords John was talking about were probably made of tempered steal. Has I read on about John MArtin and the death of his parents, I began to fall asleep. I was standing in a laboratory. Test tubes were laying all over the tables, broken glass was scattered on the floor. When I turned around, footsteps were coming closer to the door. "Move it, girl!" a man's voice scoulded.

A voice that sounded all too familiar, Cain. Annabeth fell through the doorway. Anger filled my body. She still looked pretty weak from the spear. Annabeth tried to reach for her dagger, but the man next to Cain kicked her in the stomach. Blood trickled down a side of her mouth. I wanted to kill Cain and his men. I wanted Annabeth back, safe. "Better take that dagger from her, before she ends up stabbing somebody." Cain growled.

A man from behind him knelt down and took the dagger. "What do you want us to do with it?" he asked.

"Lock it up in the armory." Cain snapped. The man what he was told.

"Alright, lets find out what this brat knows about Percy Jackson." Cain laughed bitterly.

Two men grabbed Annabeth by the arms and threw her into a chair. "Who are...you guys?" Annabeth asked weakly.

"You'll find out shortly. By the way, I'm Cain. That's my brother, Nick," Cain pointed to a blond haired guy in the corner. "And that's Mark and Jason." Cain nodded to the guys that threw Annabeth in the chair. "The man that took your knife was Michael."

"Bring that other demigod in here, Mark." Nick said.

Mark nodded and walked into one of the lab's many doors. "OK, kid, what do you know about Percy Jackson?" Cain grinned and looked at Annabeth.

"Nothing." Annabeth lied.

"Look, you were with him in the attack, you have to know something about him." Cain said.

"Yeah, I go to a camp with him, I don't know him that well." Annabeth lied again...for me.

Cain got in Annabeth's face, "Kid, you know more than you're telling. If you tell me about Jackson, I wouldn't kill you."

"No." she spat.

"Let me go!" a voice yelled.

It was that kid we were following. "Mark, what kind of demigod is he?" Cain turned his attention away from Annabeth.

"A son of Hermes." Mark tightened his grip on the boy.

"Well, he might know something about Jackson." Cain sighed. Mark forced the boy to sit on a chair.

Nick came foreward. "I'm going to ask one more time nicely, kid. What do you know about Percy Jackson?" Cain glared at Annabeth again.

"OK, for one, STOP CALLING ME KID. My name is Annabeth." she snapped.

"Fine, Annabeth, what do you know?" Cain was getting annoyed.

"If I knew something, why would I tell you?" Annabeth growled.

"Alright, what if I told you, that I would kill Percy Jackson?" Cain smiled.

Annabeth's eyes widened. Cain touched Annabeth's shoulder. His eyes were closed and he looked different, like he was taking in information all at once. Then Cain's eyes shot open, with a pleased look in them.

"Lock her up. There is no more need for questions. We won't need to find Percy Jackson. He'll come looking for us." Cain told his men.

"Percy!" a voice said.

I openned my eyes to see Grover. "Grover? What are you doing here? How long have I been asleep?" I rubbed my eyes and sat up.

"You've been alseep for a whole day. The Hephaetus cabin is done making tempered steal weapons." Grover said.

"Their done aready?!" I stamered.

"Yeah, they said they knew Beckendorf was good friends with you and I guess they thought they owned you or something." he shrugged.

"So are we leaving now?" I asked.

"In an hour, I think."

"Is it just you and me going on the quest?"

"No-Whoa! Who said I was going?!"

"Grover, you're Annabeth's friend too!"

"But-"

"No buts! You're coming if you like it or not."

"Ugh. Fine. Clarisse, Chris, the Stroll brothers, Katie Garner, Jake Mason and Pollux."

"Wow. Good to know we'll go un-noticed." I mumbled.

"Yeah. Anyway, Chiron wanted to see you, Percy." Grover told me.

I met Chiron at the big house. "You wanted to see me?" I came in the door.

"Percy, yes." Chiron smiled.

"So uh, what's up?" I shoved my hands in my pockets.

Something was lying on a table next to him. "Percy, after the defeat of Kronos, while we were cleaning up the mess, we found something." he said.

"What?"

Chiron picked up the thing laying on the table and held it to me. I took it and unwarped the paper around it. "Luke's sword, Backbiter." Chiron sighed as the last of the paper fell of the sword.

"Chiron, why are you giving this to me?" I asked bitterly.

"Luke was your friend in the end, Percy. You can't forget that. I want you to use it on your quest to find Annabeth and Nico." Chiron said.

My hands trembled as I held Luke's old sword. "Fine. I'll take Backbiter." I decided.

Chiron smiled warmly. "So Chiron...does Backbiter uh...transform into a pen?" I asked.

He threw me a pen cap. Backbiter turned into a half bronze and silver pen. I slipped it into my pocket.

I met my friends my the entrace to Camp Half-Blood. Everyone had new weapons, ones that could kill both mortals and monsters. As the sun set, we headed out of camp.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Where the heck are we even going to start looking for Annabeth?" Pollux complained as he looked at all the buildings.

"We're going to start where they captured Annabeth." I snapped.

I led them down the backstreet. "Spread out, look for any traces of Annabeth or those hunters!" Clarisse said.

I scanned the ground for any clue to where the Demigod Hunters could be. Blood was still on the ground from our fight with them. "Yo, Percy!" Jake called.

I ran toward him. "I uh, found something you might want." his voice trembled.

Jake held his hand out to me. His hand contained Annabeth's camp necklace. Jake placed it in my hand. "I'm sorry, Percy." Jake said in a hushed voice.

"Continue searching." I told him bitterly.

He nodded and walked away from me. For a few moments, I just stood there, starring at Annabeth's necklace. Then I tied it around my neck. _I will find Annabeth. _I promised myself.

I started walking farther down the street. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Clarisse grabbed my shoulder.

"For a walk." I shook her hand off.

Clarisse rolled her eyes. As I walked down the street, I noticed all the houses. Most of them were rundown, but still had people living in them. The few children that were playing outside, ran inside when I came close to them. Not that I blamed them. I was a stranger after all. The wind started to pick up. Then there was a figure up ahead. The great godess Athena. Great. Just what I needed. She glared at me, like she always did when she saw me. "Where is my daughter?" Athena asked folding her arms.

"Yeah, nice to see you too." I mumbled.

"I said 'Where is my daughter?'" Athena became more serious.

"You're a god, you should know." I snapped. I wasn't in the mood to fight with her at the moment.

"Yes, I am a god. But when were you planning on telling me, that Annabeth is missing?" she growled.

"Once again, you. Are. A. God. I didn't need to tell you. You'd find out one way or another. Plus, I was busy trying to find Annabeth." I said.

"Then tell me, why are you not searching for Annabeth now?" she stepped a little closer to me.

"I am. I just..." I didn't know what to say.

"If anything happens to my daughter, the blame will be on you." Athena was in my face now.

I felt blood rush to my face. "Look, Athena, I don't think you understand the problem. First of all, I don't even know where Annabeth is. But I will tell you, I WILL do everything in my power to get her back! And I tried to help her, when we were attacked. But the spears the humans were using, drain any demigod's power when they touch it. I know you don't like me but...Annabeth means a lot to me and I'm not going to let them kill her. OK?"

Athena's face twisted. She was probably ticked off now. "Even though, I don't like you, Percy Jackson, I am touched by your concern for my daughter." Athena sighed.

"Athena, do you know where Annabeth is?" I asked.

"No. I must go now. Good luck, Percy." Athena disappeared.

Wow. She actually called me Percy. Weird. That's what annoyed me about the gods. They always sent heros to do their crap. I heard the crunch of boots behind me and I ducked. A lightning bolt smashed into the brick wall behind me. I drew Backbiter. The person that shot at me was dressed in all black. His face was covered with a ski mask. I swung Backbiter at him. He jumped back and laughed, "You can't hurt me with that blade!"

I ran at him and cut his arm. "Really?" I mocked.

He tried to stab me with his spear, but I stepped back. Blood ran down the side of his arm. He gripped his arm trying to stop the bleeding. Suddenly, blue lightning came at me. Stupidly, I raised Backbiter. The shock traveled through Backbiter to me. Lucky, it didn't hurt me too bad. His spear came crashing down on Backbiter. I pushed him back and he stumbled. "Who is that blade touching me?" the man growled. "Tempered steal." I panted.

"Michael!" he cried.

Michael. That name, he was one of the men holding Annabeth. Michael walked out from behind a house. "Well, what do ya know? It's that little Poseidon brat." Michael chuckled.

I charged at him, but he easily knocked me aside. "Don't rush into a battle, kid." he growled.

"Where is Annabeth?" I demanded.

He swiftly kicked my stomach. I was falling to the ground, when Michael grabbed my hair. He threw me into a wall. I slashed Backbiter at him. Michael grabbed the blade. It didn't cut him or anything! "How-?!" I said.

"Just a trick I learned." Michael shrugged and threw Backbiter out of my hands.

The guy in the ski mask twisted my hand behind my back. "Cain said we wouldn't have to look for you. He was right. But it would of taken you forever to find us." Michael said.

Then a sharp pain hit the back of my knee. I fell to the ground. There was no way I could call for help. I couldn't beat these guys on my own._ Get up, Jackson._ a voice commanded in my head.

It wasn't my voice. _Who are you?_ I asked.

_Get up. Are you just going to let Annabeth die?_ the voice snarled.

It couldn't be!_ Luke?_

There was silence for a moment. _Jackson, are you going to let Annabeth die? Or are you going to fight? _

It was Luke. It had to be.

_No. But I'm-_

_Then get up and fight!_

_Luke, how are you talking to me?_

_There is no time to explain. Now fight._

I didn't ask anymore questions. Backbiter was a few inches away from me. I grabbed it quickly and kicked Michael in the chest. When he fell back, I jumped up and cut the other guy's leg. He cursed me under his breath. Michael tried to punch me but I held Backbiter to his throat. The ski mask guy pointed his spear at me. It was aimed at my head. I shut my eyes. Then he cried out in pain. I opened my eyes. An arrow was sticking out of his back. Michael ran from me and to his fallen teammate. A black haired girl stood a few yards from them. "Thalia!" I cried happily.

Michael said, "We'll see you soon, son of Poseidon." He picked up the ski mask guy and hit a button on his watch. Then disappeared.

"Yo, Percy." Thalia said.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked walking up to her.

"Same as you. Searching for Annabeth." Thalia shrugged and put her bow away.

"Any luck?" I said.

"No. But when we do find Annabeth, I'll buy you guys some cheeseburgers." Thalia smiled.

What was it with Thalia and cheeseburgers? "Uh, OK." I blinked.

"So who else is missing?" Thalia asked.

"Nico. And the Demigod Hunters took this other demigod with them." I explained.

"Do you think we'll ever get a break?" Thalia groaned.

"We're demigods, so probably not." I said.

Thalia and I walked back to the other campers. "Hey, you guys find anything?" I asked.

"No." Clarisse snapped.

Katie bent close to the ground and picked something shiny up. "Percy, have a look at this!" Katie called.

I hurried over, "What is it?"

"I-I think, it's part of one of those spears you said they shocked you with." she held it to me.

I took it from her hand and observed it. Katie started shaking her hand. My hand felt weird, like my whole body did when I touched the whole spear. "Yeah. This is has to be a part of one of those spears." I decided.

A tiny lightning bolt shimmered on the metal. Well, now we were getting somewhere.

* * *

**Sorry. I had to have some of Luke in this story. He's one of my favorite charactors. I'll updated as soon as I can. **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I threw the piece of metal to Thalia. She looked at it carefully. My hand still tingled from holding it. "Well, Percy, I have no idea what kind of metal this is." Thalia told me.

Thalia threw it back to me. "Jake!" I called.

He appeared next to me. "Jake, you're a son of Hephaestus, any idea what kind of metal this is?" I handed him the piece.

Jake turned it around, flipped it, and a whole lot more. Then gave it back to me. "You got me, Percy." Jake shrugged.

Grover shivered when he looked at it. The Stroll Brothers just said, "Wicked." I rubbed my head and placed the metal in the pocket of my jeans.

Pollux leaned against a wall. Clarisse came up to me and gave the piece out of my pocket. "Clarisse-" I started.

"Shut it, fish head. I am a daughter of Ares, the god of war, may I remind you. Hephaestus isn't the only one who knows metal." Clarisse snarled.

"Are you mocking my father?" Jake growled.

Clarisse's eyes flickered, "Maybe." Jake's face got red. "What are you gonna do about it, Mason?"

Clarisse mocked him. Jake reached for his pocket but Thalia grabbed his hand. "Don't." Thalia said.

Jake pulled his arm away from her and folded his arms. "Baby." Clarisse muttered.

Thalia's blue eyes shot toward Clarisse. "Shut up. How are we ever going to find Annabeth if we can't even get along with each other?" Thalia glared at Clarisse.

Clarisse mumbled a curse in greek. "Sorry." she sneered. She threw the piece back to me, "I don't know what it is."

"Whatever." Jake muttered.

I was so sick of Clarisse bullying everybody. Well, she wouldn't dare mess with Thalia. Thalia could pin her to the ground in five seconds flat. As I starred more at the metal piece, I noticed some words written on it. The words were covered by dust and dirt from the ground. I wiped them off carefully. It said _Tom's Weapon Shop._ Could that be a store name? "Hey guys." I said.

Everyone turned to me. Kaite came up next to me. "Is that a shop?" Katie asked.

"Probably. Only problem is: there are thousands of stores in Manhattan." Pollux reminded us.

"So lets find a map or something." Chris suggested.

"Alright. We'll go in teams of two, look for any maps you can find and meet back here in thirty minutes. Clarisse and Chris, Jake and Katie, Travis and Connor, Pollux you can go with Travis and Connor. Thalia you're with me." I gave everyone their teams.

Thalia and I wondered around Manhattan for ten minutes. In the back of my mind was the question-How long does Annabeth have? I was scared that we didn't have much time to find before the Demigod Hunters killed her. "You're quite." Thalia said.

I didn't say anything. As we walked pass store windows, I caught a glance of a reflection. Luke's reflection. It disappeared after a second. It was probably my imaginion. Thalia and I stopped at a map store. "Do you have a map of Manhattan?" I asked a man at the front desk.

He put his newspaper down and looked at me. "A map of Manhattan? In a map store, in Manhattan? Oh geez, man, I don't know." he mocked.

"Could you just show us where the stupid maps are?" Thalia said.

"I don't know, if we have maps of Manhattan. I mean, we're in Manhattan!" he continued.

He continued to mock us for awhile. Then I grabbed his shirt and pulled him over the desk. "Look, my girlfriend's life is in danger! We might not find her in time, if you don't give us the freaking map!" I hissed.

"First aisle, on the right." he choked.

"Thanks." I let him go.

We walked down the aisle and found the maps. I unfolded it. "There!" Thalia pointed to a spot on the map.

"Good. Now, lets get out of here." I folded it back up.

As we were walking out of the store, the guy yelled, "Hey! You have to pay for that!"

I walked over to him and slammed the money on the desk. He jumped back like I was going to attack him. "No tips." I said and walked back to Thalia.

The thirty minutes had passed and everyone was back on the side street. "Alright, we found a map. Here's _Tom's Weapon Shop," _I pointed to the spot on the map.

"It looks like it's between _Macy's _and _Target." _Chris said.

"So what's our plan?" Travis asked.

"We'll go in and ask if we can talk to Tom." I shrugged.

"That simple, huh?" Connor looked disappointed.

"Fine by me." Jake muttered.

"Won't the workers or whatever think something is going on, if a lot of teenagers just come into his store?" Katie said.

"Good point. OK, then, here's what we'll do. We'll go in one at a time. I'll go in first then a few minutes later one of you will come in. Can you guys handle that?" I told them.

We followed the map to _Tom's Weapon Shop._ I went in first. Swords and axes lined the walls. Whips and ball and chains were in glass cases. Some shields were also on the walls. A fan hung in the middle of the ceiling and was moving slow. I looked in one of the cases. Brass knuckles were inside. I gulped at imagining being punched by them. A black haired man came out from the back. "Can I help you with something?" he asked, starring intently at me.

"No, no. I'm just looking." I smiled at him.

He wearly watched me and I looked at all the weapons. Sortly after Pollux came in. We kept our distance. The guy kept starring at me, like he expected me to slice his head off with one of the swords.

The bell at the front door rang. Clarisse came in. After awhile all of us were in. "You guys wanna tell me what's goin on here?" the man said.

"Huh?" Jake played dumb.

"Suddenly, all you kids want to come into my store? I don't think so. What do you guys want?" he asked.

I nodded at Thalia. "You're right. We're all here together. We're looking for some information." I walked toward.

"I don't any information on anything you would want to know about." he shrugged.

He started walking back into the room he came out of, but Travis and Connor got in his way. They stood on both sides of him. "We want to talk with Tom." Travis said.

"You are right now." Tom said.

"Cool." Connor said grabbing Tom's arm.

Travis grabbed his other arm and they pinned Tom to the wall. Clarisse folded her arm, "Look, one of our friends is missing."

"And what do you want me to do about it?" Tom grunted.

"The people that took her, were using weapons, made at your shop." Thalia threw the piece on the glass case in front of Tom.

"So we think you made the weapons that took her. We want to know who asked you to make them." I stood in front of Tom.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Tom snapped.

Jake stepped forward and looked intently at Tom. "You're a son of Hephaestus, aren't you?" Jake said angerly.

"Hephaestus? Like the greek god?" Tom asked.

"Stop playing dumb." I growled.

I drew Backbiter and pressed it to his throat. "You can't hurt me with that weapon." Tom sneered.

"Now, how would you know that?" I grinned.

Tom's eyes widened. "Fine, I'm a son of Hephaestus. So what?" he admitted.

I grabbed the metal piece and held it close to his face. "I want to know, who bought those spears from you." I said.

"Why would I tell you?" he smiled.

"Cause if you don't, I kill you slowly." I said, like I meant it.

His grin faded, "Why does who bought those spears interest you anyway?"

"Because whoever bought them took my girlfriend. I'll go to the ends of the earth if I have to, in order to find her." I growled.

I held Backbiter to his throat again. "Fine, I'll tell you! It was some guy...what was his name? John and uh, Cain! That's who bought them!" Tom told me.

John and Cain. "Where did they take the spears?" Grover asked.

"Somewhere under Manhattan, I think." Tom said.

I looked in the back room. The wall was covered with...demigod weapons and shields. "Travis, Connor! Bring Tom in here!" I yelled.

They brought him back. "Where did you get _these_?" I held a sword to Tom.

Tom looked to the ground. "What? So you make spears for the Demigod Hunters, and they give you the weapons of the demigods they capture? Is that it?" I demanded.

Travis and Connor tightened their grips. "Well?" Travis said.

"Yes! OK, they give them to me and I sell them. The Demigod Hunters know that mortals can't be harmed by the weapons so they give them to me or they..." Tom stopped and looked pained.

"They what?" I knelt in front of him.

"Sometimes they torture the demigods with their own weapons...to get information from them.." he whispered.

"AND YOU JUST SIT BACK AND LET THEM?" I snarled pointing Backbiter at his neck. I could probably kill him, without even a second thought.

I stood up and headed to the doorway. "Travis. Connor. Let him go, lets get out of here." I said.

"But-" Connor started.

"No buts." I broke in.

Travis and Connor pushed Tom to the floor. "We'll have a longer talk with you later, Tom." I hissed.

After we left Tom's shop, I spotted a subway station. Well, if the Demigod Hunters were underground, a subway was the best place to start.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I woke up with the worest headache in my life. My body ache from those stupid spears and Cain throwing me into a chair. Then they'd thrown me into this dungon type place. Stone walls and floor, water from who knows where laying in puddles all around the room. I put my hand on the wall and tried to stand up. There was a wooden door in front of me. When I tried to walk to it, I fell to the stone floor. "What the-" I looked to my legs.

A chain was wrapped around my ankle. It reminded me of the spear because it was glowing blue. I gripped it tight and yank at it. It didn't break, not that I expected it too. Michael took my knife so it's not like I could saw through it. I gave it another tug. Still nothing. I wondered if they got Percy. Which wouldn't make sense consittering, they questioned me about him. I just hoped he was alright. Without realizing it I had been pulling the chains again. "I-It's no use. Don't waste your energy." a familiar voice said.

I looked to the left and saw Nico laying on the ground. His jacket was torn and a wound was bleeding on his arm. Blood ran down the sides of his mouth. Nico's black hair was drenched with sweat. "N-Nico? What happened to you?" I asked.

"I was running through the forest, I was almost to Camp Half-Blood. But they-"-Nico winced-"shot me. The pain was too much, I couldn't go on. They captured me and brought me here."

"Why didn't they help you?"

"They didn't help you, so what makes you think they would help me?" Nico muttered.

I sat silently. "Do they have Percy?"

"No. He would be here with us."

That was good. So we did have a chance of getting out of here after all. "Annabeth. They're planning something." Nico told me. "I have a feeling Percy and I are part of what they're planning."

"What could they possibly be planning? And who are they anyway?" I asked.

"They call themselves the Demigod Hunters. They hunt and kill demigods. Though I'm not sure why they decided to not kill you and me. Well, if you were with Percy, and he got away, they probably thought you'd give them information on him." Nico explained.

"Like what?"

"Like where his Achilles spot is."

I froze. If they found out...Percy was dead. "Nico, Cain touched my shoulder and said that they didn't need to look for Percy, that he would come to them. Why?"

"I've learned Cain has this...'power'. He can touch someone and know parts of that person's past. He probably saw that Percy and you were dating. So he thought Percy would come looking for you. He's probably right. Percy forgot all about me." Nico sounded like he was going to cry.

"Nico, Percy will come for you too." I said.

The wooden door opened and Mark threw in a demigod. He was the one we followed and then I got captured. Mark chained the demigod's foot to the wall. "Hey! What are you doing that for?" the demigod protested.

Mark ignored him and slammed the door shut. The demigod sighed and leaned against the stone wall. "Who are you? If you don't mind me asking." I said to him. "My name is Josh." he told me. "What's your's?"

"Annabeth. And that's Nico."

"Cool. So uh, Annabeth, do you know what's going on here? Lately, I've been getting attacked by pretty much everyone." Josh said grimly.

"Josh, you know the stories about the greek gods and stuff?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well, when the gods are real and when they have kids with mortals, demigods are the result. You're one of them."

"So is that why Mark called me a son of Hermes?"

"Yes. I'm a daughter of Athena and Nico is a son of Hades."

Nico weakly waved to Josh. I leaned against the wall. My body was so weak. "Hey, are you OK?" Josh asked.

"I'm fine..." I said.

"Josh, how did you end up here?" Nico asked.

"A few mouths ago I was attacked by these monsters and this guy saved me. I think his name was...Luke. He told me he would explain everything to me later. Luke told me to just hide somewhere in the city. I waited but he never came." Josh sighed.

"L-Luke?" I choked.

"Yeah, you know him?" Josh looked hopeful.

I couldn't find the right words. Nico said, "Yup. He tried to kill us on more than one occasion. Sorry, Josh. Luke is dead."

"What? How?" Josh stammered.

Nico glanced at me, "I'll tell you later."

I closed my eyes hoping my dreams would bring me somekind of peace. Well, I was wrong.

In my dream, there was fire and ruin around me. I relized I was in the lab, where I had been questioned. People shouted and ran. Guns fired and the clash of metal rang in my ears. Some of the faces I saw were kids from camp, Clarisse, Chris, Katie, Jake, Pollux, Grover and....Thalia? What was she doing here? "Annabeth," someone said.

I turned around to find Percy, smiling and holding his hand out to me. Before he could even blink I was in his arms, hugging him that seemed to last forever. "Percy, what are you doing here?" I sobbed.

"Well, I'm not going to let you die." Percy said.

"Percy! Annabeth! We need to go!" Travis and Connor ran up to us.

I let go of Percy and noticed a horrible scar on his face. It looked...just like _Luke's_. "Come on!" Percy grabbed my hand.

Arrows few through the air. Percy pulled me behind a table as an arrow few pass my head. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Katie fall to the floor. A Demigod Hunter raised his bow and arrow and aimed it toward Katie. I pulled away from Percy. "Katie, move!" I yelled running toward her.

Just as I got to her, the hunter let his arrow go. "Annabeth!" Percy cried.

I shut my eyes, wishing it would all just end. Nothing hit me. No arrow, bullet, nothing. I openned my eyes. Blood was splattered on the ground in front of me. But not Katie's or mine. Percy was on his knees in front of me. Blood trickling down both sides of his mouth. An arrow sticking out of his back. I realized it was the _small of his back._ His Achilles spot. Jake pulled Katie away from Percy and I. Tears sprang to my eyes. "Percy-why would you-" I sobbed.

He just smiled sweetly at me. Percy wiped away tears on my cheeks. "Annabeth, it doesn't matter _why_ I did it, all that matters is that you're alive."

Before I could say anything, Percy fell into my arms. "Percy! No!" I yelled.

I pulled the arrow out of his back and turned him over. The idiot was still smiling. I placed his head in my lap. "Percy, please, don't die. I need you." I told him.

Percy tried to sit up. He winced and grunted in pain. "Percy, don't! You'll just-" I didn't finish.

He kissed me. Maybe for the last time. I wrapped my arms around him. Why did it have to be him? WHY? Percy fell limp in my arms. "NO!" I screamed.

Then I woke up. Sweat poured down my forehead. Nico and Josh were sleeping. But the terrible truth hit me. Demigod dreams were always visions of the future or things actually happening. Percy was going to die.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

We had been traveling the subway tunnel all night. My legs were starting to get tired. "Percy, I'm tired. Can we stop and rest for awhile?" Travis complained.

It was tempting. "No." I sighed.

Clarisse shoved me. "Look, Jackson, I'm tired. I'm hungry. We need to rest for awhile."

"Not until we find Annabeth and Nico." I growled.

"What is with you? I'll never understand why you love her so much! Or why you're even friends with Nico!" Clarisse spat.

"Yeah, how would you know? Nothing matters to you! You're the daughter of the freaking god of war! Why would anything be important to you?" I snapped.

"You're so asking for it!" Clarisse held up her fist.

"Go ahead and hit me! See what happens!" I yelled.

I didn't feel like myself. Something wasn't right. Clarisse rasied her fist. She swung at me but Thalia grabbed her wrist and twisted it. "OW!" Clarisse yelped.

"Both of you need to cool it!" Thalia scoulded us.

"Whatever." Clarisse pulled her wrist from Thalia and walked over to Chris.

Thalia grabbed my shoulder, "Percy, what's wrong with you?"

"I don't know." I snapped and shrugged off her hand.

I slid down the wall of the subway. "Oh, so we are taking a rest?" Clarisse asked.

"Yeah," I said.

What were we going to do? All we knew was that the Demigod Hunters were underground. There was no way we could search _all_ the subways. I stayed awake and watched everyone else fall asleep. People passed us, probably wondering if we were poor kids in matching T-shirts. I heard footsteps coming from the long tunnel. Ares stepped into the light. "Hey, kid." Ares smiled.

"Hey, Ares. How's it goin?" I sighed. Meeting gods was no big deal to me anymore.

"It's goin." he said and sat next to me-which was strange.

"You don't talk to me, unless you want me to do something for you. What'd you do now? Lose your shield in a love tunnel again?" I asked.

"No, actually," Ares laughed.

He looked over at his sleeping daughter, Clarisse. She had her head on Chris's shoulder. "How did my kid ends up with a son of Hermes, I'll never know." Ares smiled.

We sat there for a few minutes then Ares laughed solty. "What?" I frowned.

"I've wondered for a long time why you didn't take the offer to become immortal. Any demigod would of gladly taken the offer. So why didn't you?" Ares asked.

I was stunned at his question. "I didn't become a god because I couldn't leave Annabeth. She consittered becoming a huntress and the thought of her doing that tore be apart. So I knew how she felt when Zeus asked me to become a god." I shrugged.

"Heh. You gave up _becoming a god_ for a girl?" Ares sneered.

"Yeah, your point?" I growled.

"Nothing, nothing. Just if I were you I don't think I could of givin up godlyness." he told me.

"Well, your not me, so whatever." I muttered.

I leaned my head against the wall. "What's wrong?" Ares almost sounded conserned.

"It's just...I don't know how we're going to find Annabeth and Nico. There's too many places we need to look. It'll take too long. For all we know Annabeth and Nico could be..." I couldn't finish the sentence.

"Hey, I know war-" Ares began.

"No duh." I broke in.

"Yeah, so...that guy, Tom? You could always go back and get the answer. If he has business with them, I bet he knows where they really are. For all you know, he could be warning them right now." Ares said.

Ares was going to be helpful? "You're going to actually be nice to me for once?" I asked a little stunned.

Ares shrugged and stood up. "All I did was give you simple information. It's up to you how you use it." Ares said.

Ares turned and started walking back down the long tunnel. "Thanks." I called after him.

"No problem." he waved.

I looked around, everyone was still asleep so I could sneak out. Making my way up the subway steps, I noticed it night. I could see _Tom's Weapon Shop_ through the darkness, even though it wasn't lit up or anything. The lights were off, but I could see movement. I drew Backbiter and went in Tom's shop. He was looking for something. "Tom?" I called.

"P-Percy? I didn't expect to see you back so uh, soon!" Tom said nervously.

I grabbed his shirt, "Tom, you weren't telling us EVERYTHING you know about the Demigod Hunters."

"And why would you say that?" Tom grunted.

I raised Backbiter, but something caught my eye. Something familair was hanging on the wall. I pushed Tom back and walked over to the wall. A bronze knife hung on the wall. I took it off and looked at closely in my hand. "This is Annabeth's-" I didn't finish.

Tom cut me with a sword from my right eye to my jaw. "How did you-!" I stammered.

"Same metal as the spears, it doesn't matter if you have the Achilles spot or not; you can't excape this sword." Tom laughed.

My eye hurt. Blood dripped on the ground. I held my hand to the cut and tried to stop the bleeding. No luck. Tom swung at me again. I blocked it with Backbiter. The block wasn't that strong consittering I was only using one hand. Tom punched my face-which made it hurt even more. I fell on the ground I pain. Backbiter clattered next to me. My whole hand was red with blood. "I guess, this is the end of Percy Jackson." Tom laughed.

Has Tom's sword came down an arrow entered his shoulder. "Percy!" Thalia cried. "Oh my gods!"

Clarisse and the others filed in after Thalia. My eye burned. Thalia knelt next to me and tried to pull my hand away. "Percy, let me see!" she demanded.

I took my hand from my face. "Oh gods. You need a hospital." Thalia told me.

"No-Hospital." I panted.

"Yes, hospital!" Thalia shot back.

I stood up and pushed Thalia back. "No. Hospital." I said firmly. My eye didn't hurt anymore. Thalia looked at me baffled. "What?" I asked.

"Your eye...it's...not bleeding anymore. In fact, it looks like you've had it for years." Thalia said.

Travis and Connor held Tom tight by the shoulders. I knelt down and picked up Annabeth's knife. Tom looked confused. "Percy, is that-" Thalia started.

"Yes." I said and walked over to Tom.

I pressed the knife to his throat. "Please! Don't kill me!" Tom pleaded.

"Why not? You cut my eye, stole my girlfriend's knife, and you also tried to kill me." I growled.

"I was only doing my job! Plus, I know where the Demigod Hunters are! I can show you!" Tom cried.

"I almost don't care and would rather kill you now. After all, you are a traiter to all half-bloods." I told him.

"You stupid son of Poseidon!" he snarled.

I killed him swiftly in the ribs. There was a crack and Tom screamed in pain. "Percy! Stop! What's wrong with you?!" Thalia yelled.

What did she mean? What was wrong with me? "Nothing!" I protested.

"Oh, sure! Percy, there has been something seriously wrong with you ever since this quest started! You're meaner! You show no mercy at all!" Thalia shot back.

"What are you talking about?" I demanded.

"You just _broke_ Tom's ribs!" Thalia pointed to Tom.

I was about to protest but I knew it was true. So instead of fighting with Thalia, I knelt next to Tom, who was now laying on the floor holding his ribs. "Where. Are. They?" I asked.

Tom whimpered. "I'll take you to them...but you'll have to carry me."

I nodded at Travis and Connor. They nodded back and picked Tom up off the ground. We filed out of the store and Tom started giving us directions. Thalia had been right. There was something wrong with me. I had a feeling what ever it was, it was good. And I couldn't help but wonder if me getting a scar on my eye had anything to do with it.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Annabeth! Wake up!" a voice told me.

I openned my eyes. "P-Percy?"

"No, it's Nico. There coming. You have to wake up!" Nico hissed.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Nico winced and leaned against the wall next to me. He looked like he was in so much pain. Blood still dripped from his shoulder. He gripped it to try to stop the bleeding. "Nico, you're not looking so hot." I muttered.

"I'm fine." he manged a weak smile.

Josh was asleep in the corner. Footsteps came closer to the door. It burst open. Mark stood in the dorway. Josh jumped up. Mark grabbed Josh and unlocked his chain. Jason came through the door. "Jason, take him to the arena." Mark commanded.

Jason nodded and gripped Josh's shirt and dragged him out the door. Michael came through the door next. "I'll take the son of Hades." Michael said and unlocked Nico's chain.

Michael had to almost carry Nico. Mark unlocked me and pushed me down the hallway. They took us back to the lab. A dark figure stood in the shadows. "Put them in the arena. I want to see how long they'll last. More importantly, what their weaknesses are." a voice said.

It wasn't Cain's. This voice was calm and almost gentle. Jason took Josh in one door, and Michael took Nico in another. Mark pushed me to a metal door. He opened it and shoved me inside; then shut the door. There was nothing but darkness. Light started coming in from a door opening from a side of the room. When the door stopped opening, I could see sand. I stepped out of the room and into an arena. Josh and Nico came out of other ends of the arena. Nico was leaning against the wall, gripping his shoulder. Josh was just wandering around. I looked to my right and saw a wall of weapons. "Demigods, choose your weapon." a voice boomed.

I looked at the weapons and found a sword that would suit me. Josh had a giant axe and Nico had short sword. The wall of weapons disappeared. Suddenly sand started moving toward me. I jumped out of the way. A HUGE scorpion appeared out of the sand. "What the-?" I heard Josh say.

The scorpion's tail was ready to strike. "MOVE!" I shouted.

Josh took off and I ran toward Nico. I put his arm around my neck. He hacked up blood. "Come on, Nico! We have to move!" I cried.

"Then run! Leave me here!" Nico snapped.

"I'm not going to leave you behind!" I told him.

"Well, if you don't you'll die!" Nico scolded me.

The scorpion was coming our way. I shoved Nico out of the way and slid under the scorpion's stomach. It hissed at me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Nico run. Good. I stabbed my sword in the scorpion's belly. It shrieked in pain. Someone grabbed my feet and pulled me out from under the scorpion. Luckily, I had pulled my sword out of the scorpion. "Are you stupid?" Josh asked.

I rolled my eyes and pushed him back. "Just follow my lead." I said.

The scorpion was dazed for a moment. I saw Nico run up and stab his sword in the scorpion's back. Nico landed on his face on the sand. His sword was still in the scorpion's back. Josh charged at the wounded scorpion. "You idiot! What are you doing?!" I shouted after him.

Josh slid on his knees under the scorpian. His sword traveled along the scorpian's stomach. Then Josh climbed out from under the scorpion and sliced one of its legs off. He came back over to us like it was nothing. The scorpion's blood spattered on the ground. "We have to get Nico's sword back." I pointed out.

"So what are we going to do?" Nico panted.

"Nico, distract the scorpion, while Josh and I climb on its back and get your sword." I said.

Nico nodded and ran in front of the scorpion. "Hey, ugly!" he yelled.

The scorpion was distracted. Josh and I ran toward the scorpion. But it turned around to face us. Its tail was about to strike. As the tail came down, I jumped out of the way. The scorpion's tail got stuck in the ground. Josh grabbed a hold of the tail. The scorpion pulled its tail free; Josh was still holding on to it. What was that idiot doing?! I jumped on the scorpion's back and grabbed Nico's sword. "Nico!" I cried.

I threw his sword to him. It was becoming harder to hold on. I climbed to the scorpion's head and drove my sword right into its brain. "Josh, let go!" I shouted as I jumped from the scorpion.

Josh, instead of listening to me, took his axe and chopped the scorpion's tail off. He jumped down and ran toward me. The scorpion fell on its side, dead. "That was fun!" Josh laughed. "What a rush!"

"It's not fun when your life depends on you winning." Nico muttered.

Another door opened behind us. A monster with black and white horns appeared from the darkness. Cold black eyes starred at us. A Minotaur. He was glaring at Josh. Oh, gods. Josh had his axe. The Minotaur snorted and charged. Josh jumped out of the way. The Minotaur roared. Gods, why couldn't Percy be here right now? He would know how to freaking kill this thing! Josh ran back over to us. "You have his axe!" I hissed.

"Is that good or bad?" Josh asked nervously.

The Minotaur tried to charge us again. "Definitly bad!" I yelled and pulled Nico out of the path of the Minotaur.

"Thanks." Nico grunted.

"Don't mention it." I smiled.

"Guys! A little help please!" Josh cried.

Josh was some how out running the Minotaur but not by much. I looked at Nico and saw him digging the bullet out of his arm. What? They hadn't taken the bullet out? Nico threw the bullet on the ground and stood up. "Lets move." he nodded.

We came up behind the Minotaur. Nico was on his left and I was on his right. Nico flung his sword into the Minotaur's neck. He stopped and roared in pain. I took my sword and sliced the Minotaur's head off. "Much easier than the scorpion." I grinned.

The Minotaur may have been easier but I was really tired now. I saw Cain watching us. "What are you doing?" I demanded.

He frowned and snapped his fingers. Three hellhounds appeared. Are you freaking kidding me?! Nico pushed pass me and walked up the the hellhounds. "Go back to the Underworld." Nico told them.

All three of them whimpered and disappeared. Cain smiled, "Excellent! Mark, take Annabeth back to her cell. She is done for the day. Jason take the son of Hermes and give him a different test."

Mark grabbed my arms. "Hey, what are you going to do with Nico?" I demanded.

"He will be taking more tests." Cain said.

"That's not fair! Nico has a gunshot wound!" I protested.

"Whatever." Cain sighed.

Mark took me back down the hallway and threw me back in my cell. I sat there for hours. Josh and Nico didn't come back. What kind of tests were they doing? The door opened. Cain walked in and knelt in front of me. "You're boyfriend, the son of Poesidon, hasn't come for you yet. Where is he?" Cain asked.

"How should I know? I'm in here all the time." I shrugged.

"Yes. However, you demigods have dreams about the future and things really happening all the time. So I think you've had a dream about the future." Cain told me.

"That's true, but I haven't had a dream about him." I lied.

"Forgive me, if I don't believe you." Cain sighed.

He grabbed my throat. Cain stole my memories. "You lied." he said.

Cain raised his fist. Wonderful. He was going to punch me. I shut my eyes. Suddenly there was an explosion. Percy was here.

* * *

**I would like to thank all the people that commented that this story should have more reviews. It really does mean a lot to me when people say that about my stories. So thanks! I'll update as soon as I can!**


	8. Chapter 8

**READ! This chapter is in Percy's point of view and it starts before the explosion in the last chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 8

Tom wasn't looking so good so we decided to stop at a grocery store. Travis and Connor came out with some household items that you can use to make bombs. "So where is it?" I asked Tom.

"I'll tell you when we start moving." Tom snapped.

Jerk. Tom was really starting to get on my bad side. I mean, more than he already was. Sighing, I felt the scar that was now on my face. It ran from my right eye to my jaw. _Just like Luke._ No. That was impossible. Luke was dead. It was just chance that Tom hit me like that. Luke couldn't be alive. Backbiter felt heaver in my pocket. Could part of Luke's soul still be in Backbiter? I sat down on a bench and put my hands on my head. _Percy._

"What?" I looked toward my friends and Tom.

"Huh? We didn't say anything." Jake shrugged.

"Wow, Percy, you're getting crazier and crazier the longer we continue this quest." Clarisse muttered.

"Shut it, Clarisse." Katie snapped.

"Look, this whole quest is just to find Percy's girlfriend and a stupid son of Hades. It's pointless-" Clarisse shot back.

I was in front of Clarisse before she finished her sentence. She was really starting to tick me off. I hulled her to her feet. "If it were Chris and Silena, if she was still alive, you would be doing exactly what I am. So if you don't want to continue this quest, _go back to Camp Half-Blood_ and do us all a favor. There's no use in sitting here and complaining." I told her.

"Calm down, Clarisse." Chris put his hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, Clarisse, calm down." I sneered.

"Oh, you're so asking for it!" Clarisse raised her fist.

"Go ahead and hit me, see what happens." I smiled.

"Clarisse." Chris said firmly.

"Whatever!" Clarisse yelled and walked away.

Chris just looked at me. He didn't look angry about me ticking off his girlfriend, instead he just looked confused. There was a large crack. Clarisse was punching something. Chris shook his head and went to comfort Clarisse. "Percy, we need to talk." Thalia put a hand on my shoulder.

We walked away from the group. "What?" I asked.

"What's up?" Thalia demanded.

"What do you mean?" I growled.

"Well, for one, why the heck did you tick off Clarisse like that?"

"If she doesn't want to help, I don't want to hear it."

Thalia bit her lip. Then she gasped and staggered back. "What?" I said.

"Y-Your eyes-they turned blue!" she told me.

"And what do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Instead of your eyes being green, they turned blue! Percy, is there something you have been hiding?" Thalia said.

"No. Are they blue now?" I rolled my eyes.

Thalia shook her head. "Good. Lets get a move on!" I snapped.

We ran back over to the group. "Travis, Connor, are you done making the bombs?" Thalia asked them.

"Yep." they said at the same time.

Clarisse came up behind Tom and hulled him to his feet. "Move it." she snarled.

Tom led us to an abandon subway tunnel, near his shop. As we descended in the darkness Katie and Jake turned on flashlights they had picked up at the store. Some poor people were taking shelter in the station. Men, women and children were gathered around a small fire. A few of the men glanced at Tom. He gulped and hurried pass them. We continued down the long tunnel. Tom kept glancing nervously behind him. "What's wrong?" I whispered.

"Nothing." Tom shrugged.

Soon we came to the end of the tunnel. It was boarded up, with chains locking it. "This is going to be fun." Travis smiled.

Connor dropped the bag of homemade bombs on the cement. "Hurry up guys." I told them.

"We'll do our best." Connor grinned.

Footsteps were coming behind us. I whipped around. The "poor people" we saw earlier, were walking toward us. The one in the front threw a coat he had been wearing. Now, his chest was bare and he had swords strabbed to his back. Blue lightning shined from the swords. "Friends of ours?" I hissed at Tom.

"Sadly," he whimpered.

The rest of the "poor people" threw their coats off. Each one had swords, daggers and spears. The front one smiled, showing a mouth full of yellow teeth. "Get the son of Poseidon." he snarled.

Two men behind him charged at me. I drew Backbiter. Ducking down, I thrust Backbiter upward. Backbiter cut one guy's face. He stumbled back and fell backward on the train tracks. I punched the other guy that came after me. "PROTECT CONNOR AND TRAVIS!" I yelled.

Clarisse planted her fist in a guy's face. I stabbed a black haired guy with Backbiter. The leader of our attackers, stood and watched. I ran at him with Backbiter. He blocked my attack with one of the swords on his back. "Nice try." he laughed and pushed me back.

He charged at me and slammed both his swords down of Backbiter. I grunted and shoved him. "Jason! They've set bombs!" someone yelled.

The one called Jason cursed under his breath. His gaze turned to Tom. "You traitorous worm!" Jason snarled.

He started walking toward Tom. I slammed into his shoulder. Jason stepped back. "Stay. Back." I hissed.

"Why do you protect him? After all it was _his_ weapons that helped take your friends." Jason mocked.

"If Tom is going to die, I'm going to be the one to kill him." I snarled.

"I wonder, would you have the guts to do what you say?" Jason asked.

"I don't have to explain myself to you." I said firmly.

"Yes. However, something is different about you since last time I saw you." Jason told me.

"IT'S GOING TO BLOW!" Connor cried.

Crap! I ducked and covered my head with my arms. There was a large explosin. Parts of the chain and wood flew pass my head. I uncovered my head and looked behind me. Dust was blocking my view. When the dust cleared, I saw the men that tried to kill us dead on the floor. Jason was nowhere to be seen though. "Thalia? Travis? Connor?" I called.

All my friends walked from the ruin. "Lets not do that again." Thalia coughed.

"We'll go in together, go it?" I asked my friends.

They all nodded. We waited until the dust cleared then headed in. There was a long corridor lit my dim light bulbs. My hands trembled and I tightened my grip on Backbiter. This place was crepping me out. Finally we came to a metal door. Clarisse and I forced it open. We entered a lab with test tubes and everything. What was this place? There was a gunfire. I ducked down and pressed my back against a lab table. There were more gunfires. Thalia sat next to me. "Find the people shooting at us." I told her. "Take Katie with you."

Thalia nodded and ran to Katie. The two disappeared into a room. Clarisse and Chris were behind another lab table. "Clarisse! Chris! Find Nico!" I yelled. "Jake and Pollux, see if you can find another demigod here besides Annabeth and Nico! Travis and Connor, see if you can find any useful weapons! Tom...just stay where you are!"

There was a door close to me. Quickly, I ran inside and shut the door. I turned and a guy dressed in an army outfit charged me. Backbiter stabbed him through the stomach. As he fell, I raced down the hallway. There were so many doors. A door on my left has bars instead of a window. I peered in. Annabeth was laying on the ground. I stepped back from the door, with all my strength I kicked the door. Amazingly, it brust open. "Annabeth!" I knelt next to her.

She slowly looked up at me. "P-Percy? Is that really you?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's really me!" I wrapped her in my arms.

Annabeth buried her head in my neck. "Why did you come for me?" she sobbed.

"Why wouldn't I?" I asked.

"You shouldn't be here!" she cried.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"Percy, you have to leave me." Annabeth sobbed.

"Annabeth, I'll never leave you." I told her.

She pulled away from me and looked into my eyes. "I love you, Percy, but you have to leave me." she said tears running down her cheeks.

Then she kissed me. I wrapped my arms around her, wishing she'd just listen to me. "I love you, too." I whispered.

"Then you have to leave me." Annabeth said.

I didn't want to leave her, but she wasn't giving me much choice. Annabeth was hurt and very weak. I was scared to think about what would happen to her if I did leave. Her foot was chained to the wall the same blue lightning on the weapons was on the chain. Which meant I couldn't break it if I tried. I stood up, my legs trembling. When I got to the doorway, I looked back at Annabeth. "I'll be back for you." I promised and ran down the hallway.

I met Clarisse and Chris when I was almost back to the lab. "We found Nico and Jake found another demigod." Clarisse reported.

"Good." I said.

"Wait. Where's Annabeth? Is she-?" Chris stopped.

"She's alive. But I can't free her." I was on the edge of tears. "The chains had that same blue lightning. I can't break it."

Chris nodded. We ran to the lab and discovered it was trashed. Broken glass was all over the ground and lab table flipped over. I knelt next to Travis. "Hey, do we have anymore bombs?" I panted.

"Yeah, we have four. Why?" Travis asked.

"Nevermind why. Give them to me." I demanded.

Connor took the bag off his shoulder and handed it to me. "I want you guys to find everybody and get them out." I commanded.

"What are you going to do?" Connor asked.

I ignored him and took off. I ran back down the hallway where Annabeth was. She was gone. Suddenly, someone pucnhed my cheek. I fell over and looked up at my attacker. Cain. "How's it going?" Cain smiled.

I glanced at the cell where Annabeth had been. "She's gone. It looks like you're going to have to find her all over again." he said.

I threw Backbiter and it went through Cain's shoulder. He cried out in pain. I ripped Backbiter out of his shoulder and kicked his face. Cain stumbled back. I ran in another door. It led to another hallway. My legs were on fire. Finally I came to a boiler room. I took the bombs and tape out of the bag. I began taping the bombs to the boiler. Annabeth wasn't in danger at least. She was probably miles away from here by now. I finished taping the bombs. I set the timer to two minutes. Before I hit start, I put Backbiter back in my pocket. I pressed start on all four bombs and ran as fast as I could out of the room.

Something was wrong. Suddenly, I was surounded by fire. I was blown through the roof. Remebering my Achilles spot I turned my slef around so I was facing whatever I hit. The explosin blew me out through the sewer. I remembered being in the air and then landing on the street. Cold rain hit my back and face. People screamed all around me. I closed my eyes and blacked out.

* * *

**OK the whole "Percy, you have to leave me" part, my friend, Jenny, came up with. We were babysitting and we had to wait for parents to come pick their kids up, so Jenny acted out that whole scene. It was really funny.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Shortly after Percy left, I heard Cain fighting with Percy. Cain must have lost because he flew pass my cell door. _"I'll be back for you,"_ That's what Percy said. Though, I doubted I was getting saved today. Percy's footsteps had raced down the hallway. Then Cain came into my cell and unlocked my foot. He gripped my arm and took me the opposite way that Percy went. We went through a door I'd never been through. It led to a staircase. As we climbed, Cain became more nervous. "We have to hurry," he muttered.

Finally, we came to a door. He kicked it open. It took us to the city. The night sky looked beautiful, though I didn't have time to look at it for more than a second. Cain dragged me down the street. We came to a blue van. Michael and Nick sat in the front. He opened the door and threw me inside. I sat in the backseat. Mark sat next to me, and Jason sat with Cain. Suddenly, the ground rumbled. Fire burst from every place that was connected to the sewer. A figure was flying through the air. Then they landed on the ground. It was Percy. "NO!" I screamed.

I tried to get out of the car, but Mark blocked me. We started to move. "NO! PERCY!" I yelled.

Mark kept a firm grip on me so I could barely move. "Let me go!" I screamed.

The van got farther and farther away from Percy. I couldn't tell if he was alive. What if his Achilles spot was hit? I pushed the question out of my mind. Mark held me still and Cain touched my forehead. He was taking my memories again. Cain took a deep breath and grinned. "The dream you had," he smiled.

"It doesn't concern you," I snapped.

"It was very smart of you to convince Percy to leave you," Cain said. "If you hadn't he would of surely died. However, Annabeth, you should know you can't stop the future. You can only postpone it. Percy _will_ die."

The words sent chills through me. Cain thought for a moment and looked back at me. "Percy dying will not make the boss happy," he told me. "So in a way, I'm on your side."

"Percy would rather die then help you," I cried.

"Maybe so," Cain said. "He still led the daughter of Zeus to us. So now we have located all three children of the Big Three. Oh, and, Annabeth? Percy will be back for you. Though, I doubt he'll escape so easily next time."

"How do you know he's still alive?" I asked.

"Please," Cain laughed. "A son of Poseidon, with the Achilles spot? Ha! He's not going to die that easily!"

"He'll come looking for you, just like before," Mark grinned. "Only this time, he'll be captured. So will the daughter of Zeus and Hades."

"What are you planning?" I demanded.

"Revenge," Cain told me. "Against half-bloods."

"What?" I said. "You're going to use Percy, Thalia, and Nico to get revenge?"

Cain didn't answer. He turned away from me and starred out the car window. I had to face all my fears. Cain was right. Percy would die. It was only a matter of time.

PERCY'S POV

I opened my eyes to find I was in my cabin. My head ached from the night before. I tried flex my shoulder, but pain shot through it. Then I lifted up my shirt and found my shoulder wrapped. I put my shirt down and sat up. My cabin door opened. "Hey, Percy," Nico greeted. "How are you feeling?"

"Like crap," I grunted.

"Yeah, I guess," Nico shrugged. "You took a beating. I mean, blowing up the Demigod Hunters's lair! I'm suprised you didn't hit your Achilles spot!"

"Whatever," I muttered. "How's your shoulder?"

"It's fine now," Nico said. "It hurt when they removed the bullet, though."

Nico studied me for a minute. "Uh, Percy? Where'd you get that scar?"

"That jerk, Tom, hit my face with one of those spears," I told him. "Why?"

"I was going to say it looks a lot like...Luke's scar," Nico bit his lip.

"I know," I growled.

"Percy, I've been talking to Thalia and she said you weren't acting like yourself thoughout the quest," he told me.

"So?" I demanded.

"Well," he started. "Do you think Luke could be trying to come back...through you?"

"That's stupid," I snapped.

"It's possible!" Nico protested.

I felt my temperature rising. "Nico, Luke IS NOT trying to come back through me! Got it?"

Nico didn't say anything. I pushed pass him. Luke wasn't coming back. There was no way. He was dead! Dead! _Don't count me out just because I'm dead, Percy,_ a voice said in my head.

_"What?" _I said in my head.

Silence. No. It wasn't Luke. I was losing it. Travis and Connor came up behind me. Travis put his arm around my shoulders, "Hey, Percy! That was awesome! You blowing up the lair, I mean."

"Yeah," I muttered. "I'm not in the mood to talk now guys."

I pushed Travis's arm on my shoulders and walked away from them. My feet felt like lead. I'd failed to rescue Annabeth. Where had they taken her? I put my hands in my pockets. Backbiter was still in my pocket. I walked to the lake and put my feet in the water. My reflection starred back at me. Suddenly, it shifted to a different face. To Luke's face. My heart seemed to stop beating. _Percy,_ a voice hissed.

"No," I said out loud. "It isn't possible. Luke is dead."

_I'm very much alive, Percy,_ Luke's voice laughed bitterly.

"How?" I demanded. "If you're alive, why can't I see you?"

_Because I live in you, _Luke said. _When you took Backbiter, my sword, as your weapon of choice, part of my soul was still living inside of it. So through Backbiter, I was able to enter your body._

"What do you plan to do?" I asked, my voice trembling.

_You could say I'm going to do the same thing to you, that Kronos did to me,_ Luke sighed. _The only diffrence is your body will slowly begin to look like mine did._

"You mean, like the scar?"

_Yes. I had a scar just like that when I was alive. Your hair will change from black to blonde; your eyes will turn blue. Within weeks, your soul will be mine and I'll control your body._

My heart began to beat faster. "Why? I thought you were my friend in the end," I cried.

_I wasn't ready to die, Percy. I will have my second chance and I don't care if it means taking your life,_ Luke told me coldly.

Then Luke's reflection faded and I knew he was gone...for now. My hands trembled. Backbiter felt heaver. What if I got rid of Backbiter? Would Luke's soul leave me? Probably not. Things for a demigod are never as simple. I threw a rock into the lake. I thought about the few moments I'd gotten to see Annabeth. Why did she want me to leave? She had looked worried about something, and I had no clue about what.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Percy!" Jake called behind me.

I turned to look at him. "What's up?"

"Chiron is having a meeting at the Big House," Jake panted. "He wants you to be there."

Sighing, I took my feet out of the cool water, and walked up to Jake. My life was going downhill fast. Luke was trying to take over my body, Annabeth was in an unknown location, and worst of all, I was starting to look like Luke! _Hey,_ Luke's voice snapped in my head.

_What? _I snapped back. _I don't want to look like you!_

Silence. Luke didn't answer me. He was really starting to get on my nerves. It's bad enough, that he had tried to kill more than once, but now he wanted to take over my freaking body! It wasn't my fault he made crapy choices in his life. Or that Hermes ignored him. None of it was my fault, but somehow I still got blamed. "Percy," Chiron greeted me. "How are you feeling?"

"Great," I muttered.

Thalia stood in the corner, back against the wall. Nico flexed his shoulder where the bullet had been. Clarisse, Chris, Pollux, and Katie sat at a table. Travis and Connor were arming weastling. "So," I said. "What's this meeting about?"

"Well, we're looking for the location Annabeth was taken to," Katie shrugged.

"Yep," Travis grunted. "We're not going to give up. We'll find Annabeth!"

After saying that Connor slamed Travis's hand on the table, "I win!"

"So this meeting is about us coming up with another plan," Clarisse said.

I bit my lip, remembering Luke trying to take over my body. There was no telling when the process would be complete. He could and probably would hurt all my friends. "Sorry, guys, but I'm going alone when you find the location," I told them firmly.

"What?" Pollux asked.

"I'm going alone," I repeated. "It's too dangerous. I don't want any of you to get hurt."

"That's a load of bull!" Clarisse protested. "Why should you have to go alone?"

"It's _my_fault they took Annabeth. I was the one who wasn't strong enough to protect her," I said.

"Percy, we're not going to let you go alone," Thalia growled.

"Look, whatever the Demigod Hunters are planning involves you, Nico, and me," I snapped. "If they get all three of us, who knows what their planning to do."

Thalia looked like she was going to punch my face. Clarisse slapped my face. "What the hell was that for?" I yelled.

"Stop being a hero," she said.

"What?"

"Stop acting like you're the only one who can save Annabeth," Clarisse snapped. "Don't act like we're helpless or that we need you to protect us from everything."

I fought the feeling to punch Clarisse. "You're NOT going. End of story," I said and stormed out of the room.

Footsteps came from behind me. I uncaped Backbiter and pointed it at their throat, "Don't follow me, Thalia."

"How'd you know it was me?"

I ignored her and kept walking, but still held Backbiter. "Percy, seriously, what's wrong?" Thalia came up beside me.

"Nothing," I lied.

Thalia asked me the same question again. My hair blew in the wind. Instead of black hair, a strand of blonde hair took its place. "Oh, gods," Thalia said. "What's happening to you, Percy?"

"If I tell you will you shut up?" I asked.

Thalia nodded.

"Alright, Luke is trying to take over my body," I told her. "See this strand of blond hair? I'm basically turning into him."

"_What?"_

"When I got the scar on my face, it was just one step closer to me becoming Luke."

Thalia was in shock. "How is that even possible?"

"I guess, part of his soul was still in Backbiter," I shrugged.

Putting Backbiter back in my pocket, I walked to my cabin. When I opened my door, the demigod we rescued was sitting on my bunk. He stood up and held out his hand. "Hey, I'm Josh. You helped rescue me from the subway."

"Nice to uh...meet you. I'm Percy," I said pushing pass him and I starting looking for Annabeth's lab top.

"I'm a son of Hermes, or at least that's what the Demigod Hunters told me," Josh went on. "It was really cool how you blew up the subway tunnel. Do you do that kind of stuff on every quest?"

"Not always," I replied.

"Is it true that you killed Luke Castellan?" Josh asked.

I didn't answer him. He repeated the question. I whirled around and pinned him to the cabin wall. "Whoa!" Josh yelped.

I pressed Backbiter to his throat. "I didn't kill Luke, he killed himself. All I did was give him the knife. He killed himself so the rest of humanity could survive. Why do you want to know anyway?"

"Well-I uh, before he died-I was supose to join the titans, but he died before I could join them," Josh said.

_Ah, I remember this kid, _Luke said.

"Shut up," I muttered.

"What?" Josh asked.

"It's nothing," I lied. "I just need to be alone for awhile."

I backed away from Josh. He opened my cabin door and left. I sat on my bunk and laid Backbiter next to me. Annabeth's lab top was on the floor in front of me. I picked it up and sat it on my lab. My hands trembled as I lifted the lid. I double clicked on the internet and typed in "John Martin". Some websites popped up. One of the websites said that you could buy John Martins on Ebay. Why does it always say you can buy stuff on Ebay and you can't? I found a website that said, "John Martin: Demigod Hunters"; I clicked on it. A blog popped up, something had been posted a day ago.

_Hello, my fellow Demigod Hunters. A few days ago one of my_

_labs was destroyed in an explosion. So to replace it, I was _

_bought a castle in the Himalayas. I know what your all thinking;_

_Why buy a castle in the Himalayes? Well, it's in isolation so_

_no will be able to get to it without a plane. Only my employers_

_know its location. I will say this, we are getting close to_

_our goal my fellow Demigod Hunters, Percy Jackson_

_will be coming after his girlfriend. It is only a matter of _

_time before we get our hands on him._

_-John M._

_P.S. If Percy Jackson is reading this right now, I would like to say that, your friend, Annabeth, won't last long in this horribly cold weather. I'd hurry if I were you._

My heart seemed to stop. The Himalayes? Every cell in my body screamed it was a trap, but I knew I had to go anyway. They wanted me isolated, away from big cities, from my friends. I was I going to get there? A plane's wings might freeze and I wasn't going to help Annabeth if I was dead. I couldn't help her if I didn't know where she was. I typed in "Castle in Himalayes". A site popped up and said there was one in to the east. Well, at least now I had an idea where she was. But there was no way, I could tell my friends. They'd just follow me.

When night came I crept to the Pegasus Stables. _Yo, boss!_ Blackjack stomped his hooves excitedly.

"Hey," I whispered. "Can I ask you for a favor?"

_Uh, depends what is it?_ Blackjack asked nervously.

"Annabeth was taken by these Demigod Hunters and they moved her location to the Himalayes, so I need a ride to get to the castle their keeping her at."

_H-Himalayes? Mountains? Ice? Cold? I don't like the cold, boss, but...if your sure that's where she is, then sure I'll take you._

I smiled and told him, "When we get back, I give you anything you want to eat for a week."

In minutes we were up in the night sky heading for the Himalayes.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Chills went through me as Blackjack and I passed over the ocean. Wind blew in my face. Why didn't I bring a coat? Or even a freaking jacket? Because I was stupid, that's why. _Hey, how you holding up, boss?_ Blackjack asked.

"C-Cold," I shivered.

After awhile the wind started to calm down. I put my head on the back Blackjack's neck. My eyes closed and I drifted to sleep. I've said it once and I'll say it again, "Demigod dreams suck". This time, I saw Annabeth sitting in a cold cell. It was so cold ice was forming on the only window in the room. She laid in a corner and was curled in a ball. Annabeth shivered as the cold wind blew in through the window. Her Camp Half-Blood shirt was dirty and her jeans were damp from melted snow. Annabeth's eyes were closed. Tears ran down her cheeks. She sobbed in her dreams. Then my dream shifted.

It wasn't _my_dream; it was Annabeth's. I was standing back at the Demigod Hunters's lair in the subway tunnel. Annabeth was stumbling through a lab. Fights were broken out all around her. Demigod Hunters and campers were fighting with swords and spears. I saw Clarisse slam her sword hilt on a Demigod Hunter's head. He fell to the ground unconscious. I was watching it through my eyes. That probably doesn't make sense, right? Okay, it was like I was watching it through my eyes but I wasn't in control of my actions or the things I said. But I could feel Backbiter in my hand. "Annabeth," I cried and ran over to her.

I held my hand out to her and she gripped me in a hug so tight I could barely breath. She sobbed into my shirt. "Why did you come?"

"I'm not going to let you die," I told her.

"Annabeth, Percy, we need to go!" Travis and Connor ran up to us.

I nodded and grabbed Annabeth's hand. Guns fired at us from every side. I pulled Annabeth against my chest and ducked behind a lab table. Annabeth held my hand in a death grip. I peered around the table. Katie had tripped and fell to the ground. A Demigod Hunter with a bow and arrow aimed at her. Annabeth saw this and cried, "Katie! Get out of the way!"

She ran toward Katie and the Demigod Hunter let to arrow go. I cursed under my breath. Annabeth got to Katie and shut her eyes. "No!" I shouted and shielded them.

The arrow enter the small of my back, my Achilles spot. The pain was unbareble. I groaned in pain. "Percy!" Annabeth cried.

I started to fall. Annabeth grabbed me and I laid on her shoulder. I felt her finger curl around the arrow in my back. She held my hand as she began to pull the arrow out. I sqeezed her hand. The arrow landed on the ground, my blood dripped on the ground. Annabeth laid my head in her lap. I smiled at her. "Percy, please, _please, _don't die. I need you," she sobbed.

Grunting with pain, I sat up to face her. "Percy, lay back down! You'll only make it-"

I kissed her. Tears rolling down her cheeks, she kissed me back. Her arms went around my neck. My heart started to slow down. I was going to die in a few seconds. My heart stopped and I fell on the ground. Annabeth sobbed over my body. "NO!" she cried.

I watched as she begged me to come back over and over. The dream shifted again. I was looking at Annabeth in the cell again. "Percy!" she shouted and sat up.

I wanted to tell her I was there, but even if I tried she wouldn't be able to hear me. Annabeth brought her knees to her chest and sobbed.

My head jerked and I woke up. It was dawn. The sun was coming over the horizen. I rubbed my eyes and sat up. _Mornin', boss. _Blackjack said.

"Morning," I yawned.

Annabeth's dream kept coming back to haunt me. That explained why she wanted me to just leave her back in New York. _Was I really going to die? _Land was coming up ahead. Blackjack and I spotted a town. We landed behind the trees. No use scaring the people in the town. "Stay here, Blackjack," I told him, slipping off his back. "I'll be back in a little bit. Just have to pick up a few things."

_Sure thing, boss. _Blackjack said.

I walked toward the town and checked my pockets for money. None. Crap. Well, I didn't want to steal but if I was going to make it through the Himalayes I needed to. As I passed people from the town, they glared at me with disgusted looks. They started muttering to each other, pointing at me. A store was up ahead; coats and hats hung in the window. There wasn't a name. Actually there weren't any names on any of the stores. As I opened the door a bell rang. I found a black jacket. It probably wasn't going to be warm enough. But I didn't need to walk in and be wearing a gaint fur coat. I needed to be able to move easily. The man at the front desk looked toward me. "You need help finding anything, punk?" he asked.

I knew that voice. "Ares," I said.

He smiled. "How's it going?"

"Going," I muttered. "What are you doing here, Ares? Are you following me?"

"No." Ares looked through a shelf of coats. "I just thought you'd need my help."

"With what?"

"Are you going to steal that coat? If I 'own' the shop I can give you whatever you need."

"Okay," I shrugged.

I found some climbing stuff, picked out a hat and some gloves. Ares looked out the front window and sighed. He drummed his fingers on a shelf. I noticed her had a knife strapped to his leg and a pistol in his belt. "You better hurry up, Percy," he said. "Those town's people are starting to wonder what you're doing."

I pushed he aside. "What are you talking about?"

My heart skipped a beat when I saw the people starting to gather around the store. "That's not good," I mumbled to myself.

I slipped on my jacket and grabbed a bag. Then I put the climbing stuff in it; I wasn't sure if I was going to need it, but I'd rather have and not need it, then not have it and need it. I put the bag over my shoulder and opened the door. The people starred at me. There was something wrong with their eyes. Their eyes were red, like none of them had slept in a long time. One of them spoke. "I must say, Percy Jackson, I expected you to come sooner," a man said.

There was no doubt it was Cain's voice. I dropped my bag on the ground. Cold wind blew in my face. I uncapped Backbiter from my pocket. One man attacked me. I slashed Backbiter across his back. He shouted in pain and faint on the ground. More people stepped forward. "Who are these people?" I demaned.

"Their Hunters, like me," Cain laughed bitterly.

I expected him to say something like "Kill him" but that would interfear with their plan. The villagers stepped closer to me. Each pulled out a weapon. Each weapon had blue lightning coming from it. Great. The first one was a woman in a blue dress. I didn't want to kill them. They were only doing their job. I smacked her with the hilt of Backbiter. _Face the fact, Percy, you might actually have to kill them to get to Annabeth,_ Luke's voice hissed in my head.

Two men charged at me with knives. I jumped back and one's knife came an inch frommy chest. Then all the people charged. I fought as many as I could. A kid jumped on my back. He was dragging me down. A gun fired and the kid fell off my back. Ares stood in front of the store holding his gun. "I've got your back," Ares said smoke still coming from his gun.

I nodded and slashed at a man. He snarled and stabbed at me with his sword. I drove Backbiter through his chest. He hacked up blood and fell to the ground when I pulled Backbiter out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ares cut down three villagers in one slash of his knife. Well, what did I expect? He was the god of war. A woman and man in dress clothes came at me. I flipped over them and cut them both across the back of their necks. In the next few minutes, I had killed over fifthteen villagers but they just kept coming! _You might need my help on this, Jackson, _Luke told me.

_No! I can do it myself, _I snapped.

Five villagers came at me at the same time. I threw Backbiter and it hit one man's head. I jumped and my feet landed on his chest. Backbiter made a horrible sound as I pulled it from the man's head. I did a full hundred and eighty spin and chopped off the other four's heads. The ground was soaked with blood. Ares had disappeared. "Yeah, 'I 've got your back'," I muttered under my breath.

Before I knew it ten more had replaced the five I had just killed. I got buried under neath their hands, grabbing for me. _Two heads are better than one, Percy, _Luke hissed.

I didn't really have any other choice. "Fine." I said.

My strength increased has Luke gave me his power. Like he said "Two heads are better than one". I jumped out of the heap of villagers. Suddenly Backbiter changed. It was no louder a sword. Instead it grew into a scythe. _Kronos's scythe. _I didn't have time to think about if I should use it or not because the villagers came right at me. I swung the scythe. It took out ten villagers in one swung. I brought the scythe up and slammed it on the ground. A large crack appeared. Flams shot out of it, burning and killing many of the villagers. I could get use to this scythe. The man Cain had talked through charged at me. I hit him in the stomach and he flew backwards. He crashed through a store window. There were about thirty villagers left. How could there be so many people in one little town?

_Ready? _Luke asked,

_Ready. _I agreed.

I charged at them and slashed ten of them. The remaining ones started to close in. I postioned the scythe toward the villagers coming toward me. Time started to slow down. I cut all of them down in one swung. Time returned to normal. Kronos's scythe turned back into Backbiter. _As much as I hate you for trying to take over my body, thanks for the extra help, _I told Luke.

_No problem, oh, and I'm not going to 'try' I'm going _will _take over your body, _Luke replied.

I put Backbiter in my pocket and picked up my bag. Then I decended into the woods. I strapped the bag to Blackjack's back. He asked me what happened. I ignored him and climbed on his back.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Percy is gone," Nico told Thalia.

"What do you mean _gone_?" Thalia demanded.

"He's not in his cabin or in the area," Nico shrugged. "I can't find him anywhere."

Thalia cursed under her breath. "Gods, he can be so annoying. Nico, any idea where he went?"

"I thought I just told you I couldn't find him anywhere," Nico muttered.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "I meant, did you _check everything _in his cabin? Like I don't know, ANNABETH'S LAPTOP?"

"No," Nico said.

Thalia pushed pass him and headed to Percy's cabin. Nico ran after her. When they got to Poesidon's cabin Thalia looked around the room for Annabeth's laptop. She found it buried under Percy's bunk. Thalia openned the lid. Nico knelt beside her. "Whatever Percy was trying to find, he didn't close out of it," Thalia said.

When the laptop loaded, John Martin's blog popped up. "So he's going to the Himalayes," she sighed.

"Yeah, I guess, but how is going to get there?" Nico asked.

"Gee, I don't know," Thalia said sarcasticlly. "He probably took Blackjack."

"Right..." Nico said.

Thalia shut the laptop's lid and walked out the cabin's door. "Nico, find the others and tell them to meet, with their weapons, at the Pegasus Stables."

Nico nodded and ran off the find the others. Clarisse, Chris, Katie, and Jake were in the area. "Hey guys," Nico panted. "Meet Thalia at the Pegasus Stables. We're going to find Percy."

Pollux was trying to make wine with some grapes. "I'm the son of the freaking god of wine and I can't make one cup of it!" Pollux scoulded himself.

"Yeah, that's true," Nico said. "Pegasus Stables. Thalia will be waiting there."

"Huh? Why?" Pollux asked.

"Percy is going after the Demigod Hunters...again. So bring your sword or whatever and go meet Thalia," Nico told him.

Grover was walking with Juniper. "Grover," Nico said. "Oh. Hey Juniper. Grover come with me to the Pegasus Stables. We're going to get Percy."

Grover told Juniper he'd see her soon. On their wat to the stables they found Travis and Connor. Ten Pegasus were already out. "Okay, now that everyone is here," Thalia began. "Our friend, Percy, failed to tell us he was going to look for Annabeth. After seaching Annabeth's laptop, I found out that he's going to the Himalayes."

"Hey, isn't that where the Abominable Snowman is?" Travis asked.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "We are NOT going to be looking for the Abominable Snowman while we're there."

"Aw! That's not fair!" Connor protested.

Thalia ignored them. "Anyway, we're going to find the Demigod Hunters's castle. When we do, Percy will probably be there already. Lets just hope he doesn't get himself killed before then. Clarisse, what weapons are we bringing?"

"I've got my spear and a shield. I don't know or care what everyone else is bringing," Clarisse said.

Thalia said, "Okay, if you don't have a sword or whatever I suggest you get one."

Travis, Connor, Pollux, and Grover quickly ran and grabbed swords. Then they climbed on their Pegasus and took to the skies.

**Back to Percy's POV**

It started to snow. Well, it was more like a bizzard. Blackjack and I were having trouble seeing through the snow blowing in our face. _Boss! I don't know how much longer I can fight through this storm! _Blackjack told me.

"Me too," I shouted. "Lets just find the castle."

Something was coming up ahead. It had a castle shape. "There!" I pointed.

Blackjack flew toward it. Then I realized we were going to fly straight into the castle wall. "Stop!" I cried.

Blackjack turned just in time. One more second and we would of crashed and fallen to our icey deaths. I remembered my dream about Annabeth, how she was in a cell with one window. Blackjack circled the castle. The snow was making it hard to see clearly. "Blackjack, circle closer," I told him.

He flew closer. I could see a little better. A chill went down my spine. We had to get out of this cold. I looked for the cell window again. This time I saw a small window. "Can you fly to that window?" I asked Blackjack.

_I'll try my best, boss. _Blackjack replied.

We took off. The snow almost hurt as it hit my face. Finally we came to the window. I peered through it. I could see Annabeth in the same corner as I saw in my dream. "Annabeth!" I hissed.

Her eyes opened and she looked at me. "Percy! What are you doing here?" she said, shivering.

She ran under the window. If I could break the bars there would be a ten foot jump. Not that bad. "Get away from the window," I told her.

Annabeth stepped back. I drew Backbiter and slashed the bars. The bars fell. I grabbed the bag on Blackjack's back and threw it in the cell. Then I put Backbiter in my pocket. "Blackjack, I want you to fly back to the town. I don't want you to freeze to death up here," I said.

_Whatever you say, boss. Just don't do anything stupid. _he told me.

I smiled and leaped through the window. When I hit the cell floor I hit it hard. "Ow," I grunted standing up.

Annabeth ran into my arms. Her arms felt like ice. She was about to protest about me being there but I said, "Don't even tell me 'your not suppose to be here'. I know about the dream."

She stepped back from me. "Percy, I don't want you to die...not because of me."

"I'm not going to die," I told Annabeth smoothing her curly blond hair.

Annabeth shivered. I realized I didn't bring any other coats besides the one I was wearing. Idiot! I took my jacket off and gave it to Annabeth. "I'm not going to take your jacket," she said.

"Yes, you are. What would I do if you frooze to death?" I asked.

I wrapped the jacket around her shoulders. She traced her fingers over the scar on my face. Her faced looked pained. "Percy, what's happening to you?" Annabeth asked.

"What do you mean?" I said stupidly.

"I mean, this scar that looks exactly like Luke's and the blond highlights in your hair."

"Okay, don't freak out but Luke is kinda...trying to come back through me."

She was fighting back a comment. "Might I ask how?"

"Annabeth, lets not worry about it now, okay? I mean, I just got here all the way from Camp Half-Blood to save _you_," I said.

She was still shivering. We sat in down and I wrapped my arms around her, trying to keep her warm. There was no way we could climb down the mountian. Annabeth was too weak and we wouldn't be able to see two inches in front of our faces. I could tell Annabeth was thinking about the idea od me transforming into Luke. "Percy, I don't want you to turn into Luke," Annabeth whispered.

"I don't want to either. But if it happens it happens," I told her.

"Thanks for coming after me..." was the last thing she said before falling asleep.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Thalia's Pegasus landed first. The others landed behind her. They were in the town where Percy had been just hours eariler. Dead villagers laid all around them. Some cut in half, others had their heads missing. Thet starred in horror at the bodies. There was so much blood. Katie turned her head away, ready to puke. "Gods, what happened here? A slaugther fest?" Thalia muttered.

Grover was green in the face. "Please, tell me Percy didn't do this," he said.

"I don't know if he did," Thalia shrugged. "He might of. I don't think a villager went crazy and killed all these people. If he did, maybe he had a good reason."

Thalia looked among the bodies, looking for Percy's. _His body isn't here so he much be still alive. _Thalia thought to herself. "If you're looking for Percy, he isn't here," a voice said.

Thalia looked up and saw Ares standing in the doorway of a store with no name. "Dad," Clarisse mumbled.

"Where'd he go?" Jake asked.

"The mountains. Oh, and if you were wondering if he killed all these people, he did. But in his defense, they attacked him first," Ares told them.

"Could you....take us to the mountains?" Thalia asked.

Before Ares could answer Blackjack came hurtling down from the sky. His wings were almost froozen. _That's it! I quit! I'm never going on another quest again! This is the last time! _Blackjack complained.

Though, no one understood him. "Blackjack!" Grover cried.

They helped Blackjack into a small house nearby. There was wood in the fireplace. Thalia stapped her fingers and a lightning bolt flew from her fingers and lit the fire. "We can't leave Blackjack alone, does anyone want to stay with him?" Thalia asked.

"I should stay," Grover said. "I'm not that great in battle. I won't make much of a diffrence."

"Fine," Thalia said.

**Percy's POV**

Annabeth was still asleep when footsteps were coming closer to the cell door. "Annabeth, wake up," I whispered.

"Percy, what's wrong?" Annabeth opened her eyes.

The cell door opened. Cain stepped inside. There was a grin on his face like he'd been expecting me-which he probably was. Nick and Mark stepped in behind him. Mark grabbed the bag with all my climbing stuff in it. Annabeth and I stood up. I drew Backbiter and stepped in front of Annabeth. Before I could react Nick kicked Backbiter out of my hands. Then he grabbed my hands and twisted them behind my back. Nick forced me to the ground. Cain wrapped his arm around Annabeth neck. "Annabeth!" I cried.

When I tried to get Nick off me Cain pulled out a gun. He pointed it at Annabeth's head. "Be still, Jackson, or I'll shoot the girl," Cain told me pressing the gun to Annabeth's cheek.

Would he really kill her? When I struggled again Cain said, "It's your choice, it doesn't matter to me if she lives or dies. You're here, I don't need her anymore."

I stopped struggling. Mark kicked Backbiter farther away from me. Then another person stepped through the door. "John Martin," I growled.

His eyes were cold as they starred at me. He looked like he could freeze Zeus himself with one glance. John's blond hair was messy like he'd just gotten out of bed. "Percy Jackson," he greeted me.

His voice was deep and cold. John knelt next to me and examained my face. He looked at my scar. "Let me guess, Tom gave this to you, right?" John asked moving my head to left then right.

"Yeah," I muttered.

John stood up and held out his hand. "Let me see the sword."

Mark put Backbiter in his hands. John looked at it carefully. "Celestial bronze and tempered steel," John said. "Put it in the armory. I'll decided what to do with it later."

Mark nodded and took Backbiter out of the cell. Cain still held the gun to Annabeth's head. My eyes didn't leave her's. "Leave us," John barked at Nick and Cain. "Oh. And Cain take miss Chase to another cell for now."

Nick tied my hands tightly together, then left and slammed the cell door shut. I leaned against the stone wall. "Tell me, Percy, do you enjoy taking lives?" John asked.

"Uh...not really," I shrugged.

"Well, you seemed to enjoy killing all those villagers. All they were doing was their job and you slaugthered them all," John shook his head.

"That was different. First of all, they tried to kill me first," I protested.

"Ah, but did you ask them?"

"Gee, excuse me for not asking 'Hey, are you trying to kill me?' when they were trying to slice my head off!"

"I see. Well, I dislike killing too," John sighed.

"Then why do you kill innocent demigods?" I demanded.

"See, I am in the same situation as you were at the village. You killed them because you feared for your life. Self-defense, if you will."

"It isn't self-defense if you kill them when they didn't even attack you."

"It's almost more of a revenge situation now that I think about it," John grinned.

"Because your parents died?" I asked.

"They were murdered,"John snapped. "By your kind, demigods. And do you know why they were killed?"

"No," I muttered.

"Because Zeus feared my power and thought that by killing my parents I would live in fear of him for the rest of my life. So I would never use my power against him."

"What 'power'?"

"Cain and I are the same except I can give people thoughts. I can show them my past. Sometimes even influence their choices. However, to understand my pain, Percy Jackson, you much understand my past," John said.

Before I could say anything, John pressed two fingers to my forehead.

I wasn't in the cell anymore, instead I was standing in a house. It was night outside. The house was dull. No paint on the walls. I walked through the house. There wasn't much to look at. It looked like a normal boring house. Suddenly there was a scream. It had come from the kitchen. I ran toward the screaming. Three demigods with masks and swords stood in the kitchen. John's mom was the one who sreamed. His dad grabbed a knife from the table. John, as a kid, hid behind his mom. He had his dad's blond hair and his mom's brown eyes. "Get back!" John's dad pointed the knife at the demigods.

The demigods were silent. "I-I don't know who you are, but take whatever you want! Just leave us alone," John's mother cried.

I could see the demigods's eyes through their masks they looked like they didn't want to do this. The middle demigod raised their sword. John's father threw a chair at the demigod and ran. John and his mother followed. They ran to the basement. But the demigods weren't far behind. John's dad got cornered. "Go run and hide!" John's mom whispered to him.

John nodded and quickly ran to another room. The first demigod cornered John's mom and the second demigod cornered his dad. The third one started looking around the room for John. "I'm sorry," the second demigod said.

I could tell by their voice it was a girl. Then she stabbed John's dad through the heart. The first demigod said sorry to John's mom and did the same. The one that stabbed John's mom was a boy. "Did you find John?" the girl snapped.

"No," the third demigod answered. The third was a guy too.

"Well, find him!" the second demigod barked.

They moved to the room I had seen John run into before his parents were killed. John was hidden behind a pile of boxes. The demigods found him in seconds. John curled into a ball and shivered. The third demigod raised his sword, but didn't bring it down on the helpless John. "I can't do it," he said.

"You HAVE to! We all know what he becomes in the future do you want that to happen?" the girl asked.

"You do it then! He's nothing but a kid!" the third demigod protested.

She pushed him aside and raised her sword. She, too, didn't bring it down. The other boy tried aswell. None of them could do it. They fled the scene. Then the vision ended. I had broken into a sweat. "And I'll leave you at that, Mr. Jackson," John said then left.

He was lying when he said Zeus killed them to scare him into not using his pwer against him. Those demigods knew about his future. But none of them could kill him because he was a defenseless kid. Sortly after John left, Cain came back in with Annabeth. He threw her back into the cell. I told her about the vision and John wanting revenge. "If that's what the demigods said I doubt Zeus was just trying to scare him," Annabeth decided.

"I know," I agreed.

We talked for a little while, but we both fell asleep. I dreamed, which sucked.

In my dream, I was watching the demigods who had killed John's parents run through the streets. They didn't look back. Finally they stopped between two buildings. "We should have killed him," the girl muttered.

"Well, none of us could do it, but if you want to go back, be my guest," one boy said.

"No thanks!" the girl shot back.

There was something wrong. I _knew _those voices. Then all three demigods took off their masks. When the stepped in the street. I realized how I knew them. It was Thalia Grace, Nico di Angelo, and _me._

_**Author's note: Okay, do you guys like this idea? I'm not saying that Nico, Thalia, and Percy are going to time travel. I'm not even sure I like this idea. **_


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

_I _was supposed to kill John? How was that even possible? I'd seen Thalia and Nico kill John's parents. But none of us could kill John. I mean, he was just a kid. So...what? Did we somehow time travel or something? Annabeth was still sleeping. I felt my pocket. Idiot Demigod Hunters. Backbiter had already appeared back in my pocket. I looked up to the cell window. It was night. Hopefully, Blackjack had gotten back to the town safely. His wings would probably be in bad shape. _It's a nice night, _Luke's voice said.

_Yeah, it'd be nicer if I wasn't stuck in a cell, and had you taking over my body, _I snapped back.

_Sorry about that. Annabeth seemed to notice you weren't yourself, _Luke sighed.

_She noticed my blond highlights and scar, _I muttered.

_Right, what is she going to do when I take over your body? And the person you were no longer exists? _Luke asked bitterly.

_Maybe she'll stab you and I'll take you to the Underworld with me, _I growled.

_You wish, _Luke laughed.

_I've been meaning to ask you, how did Backbiter turn into Kronos's scythe? _I asked.

_Remember where we were fighting on the cruise ship? Backbiter transformed into Kronos's scythe. And it still can, _Luke said.

_That's cool. So what are you going to use it for when you take over my body? _I said.

_None of your business, besides you'll be gone long before then, _Luke told me.

Luke didn't say anymore. I couldn't let him have Kronos's scythe to use whenever he wanted. There was no telling how much damage he could cause. Since Luke and I weren't Kronos, neither of us could slow time for ever. But Luke could freeze it long enough to do some damage. "Percy? What's wrong?" Annabeth asked.

"Nothing," I said.

"Is it Luke again?" Annabeth asked in a small voice.

She could tell by the look in my eyes it was Luke. Riptide was still in my pocket. An idea popped into my head. I took Riptide out of my pocket. "Annabeth, Luke is going to take over my body...soon," I told her. "He's getting stronger every minute. I found out that Backbiter could transform into Kronos's scythe. These villagers attacked me and I slowed time."

Annabeth was silent. I took her right hand and put Riptide into it. "Percy, what-" Annabeth started.

"When I become Luke," I cut her off. "He will use that ability. You're the only one who knows where my Achilles spot is. I need you to take Riptide and stab my Achilles spot when I turn into Luke."

"I-I don't think I can..." Annabeth's voice trailed off.

"You have to," I said.

"I can't...I won't kill you!" she protested.

"You won't be killing me, you'll be killing Luke," I shrugged.

Tears came to Annabeth's eyes. I bit my lip. It was true she was the only person that knew exactly where my Achilles spot was. I thought about telling her about my dream. About Thalia, Nico, and me being the ones responsible for what John had become. It seemed almost impossible that an innocent kid could become that. I decided not to tell Annabeth, there was no use making her more upset. Annabeth tried to hand the pen back to me. I curled her fingers around it, "Please?"

She took her hand back and put Riptide in her pocket. I opened my arms. Annabeth crawled into my arms and sobbed. I felt bad that I'd asked her to kill me if I became Luke. I wasn't sure if Annabeth could kill me. "It's okay," I told her.

Annabeth sobbed more. Yeah, I'm not that great at comforting. "Jackson," the cell door creaked open.

"What do you want, Cain?" I demanded.

"Come with me," Cain said.

"No."

"Fine, have it your way," Cain shrugged.

He grabbed my shirt and started dragging me out the door. "Percy!" Annabeth cried.

Cain ignored her and shut the cell door. "HEY!" I snapped. "I was kind of in the middle of something!"

"Shut up," Cain muttered.

I tried to remove Cain's hand from my shirt. But he was freaking strong. "Let go," I demanded.

He ignored my pleads. I opened my mouth. "I'll bite," I warned.

Cain let go of my shirt. Though, I doubt he let go because I threatened to bite him. Cain grabbed the back of my neck and led me down the hallway. We came to a large steal door. Cain pushed it open. Hot air blew in my face. Inside was a desert. How did they get a freaking DESERT inside a castle in the Himalayas? Sand was everywhere. Man, no water. Wonderful. "Uh...how the heck did you get a desert in the Himalayas?" I asked.

"Simulation," Cain replied.

"Cool...if you don't mind me asking, but what are we doing here?"

"_We? _No just you," Cain panted his foot in my back.

"Hey-" I started to cry.

But it was too late. I was in the desert and Cain had shut and locked the door behind me. "Cain! What the heck!" I shouted.

Great, I started walking around the desert simulation. I had to admit, it was pretty cool. Well, it was until a growl came from behind me. I whipped around. "How are you, Jackson?" Dr. Thorn asked.

How did he reform already? "Not so great, since I have to look at your ugly face," I said.

A scorpion tail had sprung up behind him. It moved like a snake ready to strike. "So what are you doing here? Making a quick buck or something?" I asked.

He didn't answer. I drew Backbiter. Thorn hissed at the sword. "Tell me, how did _you _get a hold of that weapon?" he hissed at me.

"It doesn't matter," I muttered.

I charged at Thorn and jumped into the air. Backbiter was aimed to cut his tail off. If he didn't have a tail, he would be less of a threat. Well, my plan failed. Thorn swung his tail around and hit my chest. Luckily, I didn't hit the stinger. I fell to the ground. Thorn's tail aimed its stinger. When it struck I blocked the hit with Backbiter. I jumped to my feet and ran out of the hit range of Thorn's tail. "Get back here, Jackson!" Thorn snarled.

"Sorry if I don't feel like having a scorpion stinger in my chest," I shot back.

I said it once and I'll say it again Thorn was FAST. He charged at me. His tail fired stingers at me. I ducked behind a desert rock. Next thing I knew, Thorn had a hold of my shirt and held me up in the air. Backbiter had fallen out of my hands. Thorn's tail rose to strike. My heart started to speed up. Then I noticed something around Thorn's neck, a large, thick, metal, brace thing. That blue lightning that I hated glowed around it. "Good-bye, Jackson," Thorn laughed coldly.

Just before his tail was about to hit me, Thorn screamed. The brace around his neck sent lightning all throughout his body. He dropped me and I grabbed Backbiter. Thorn fell to his knees and screamed in pain. I decided to make the best of the blue lightning and get away from Thorn. Speakers came on. _"Thorn, I warned you not to try and kill him. I told you if you did, you would surely pay for it," _Cain's voice boomed over the loud speakers.

Thorn roared in pain. "What are you playing at, Cain?" I shouted.

_"What do you mean?" _Cain asked.

"That thing on Thorn's neck, what is it?"

_"Just something to help control him, there are others with the same brace," _Cain told me.

There were more monsters? The speaker turned off. Thorn collapsed on the sand. I almost felt bad for him. Well, until he got up and started shooting more stingers at me. I charged at him. When I got close to him, he lashed out with his tail. Lucky for me, it got stuck in the sand for a second. I jumped on his back and wrapped my arms around his neck. I was careful not to touch the brace it would send bolts of lightning through me if I did. "I can help you," I whispered in his ear.

Thorn thrashed around. His tail hit everything except me. "RRRAAA!" he roared.

"I can help you," I tightened my arm around his neck.

"How can you?" Thorn choked.

"When I break out of this place, I can take you with me," I told him.

He laughed. "You can't. This thing on my neck won't let me leave this area."

"I'll figure something out," I said.

Thorn managed to pull his arms up and grab my shirt and throw me off his back. He acted like he was going to kill me. "Fine. If you can find a way, I'll do it," he growled.

"Okay. But in return you can't kill anymore half-bloods or I'll kill you myself."

"BAH! Not kill half-bloods? How will I live?"

"I don't know. Figure something out."

The door opened. Cain had his arms behind his back. "Come, Percy."

I didn't think twice; I wanted away from Dr. Thorn. Cain took me back to my cell. Annabeth was waiting when I came through the door. Cain slammed it shut, like he had so many times before. "Where'd he take you? What happened?" Annabeth asked.

"Got into a fight with our old friend, Dr. Thorn," I smiled.

"Sounds...fun..." Annabeth trailed off.

She was probably remembering how Dr. Thorn had kidnapped her years before. When I couldn't hear the echo of Cain's boots anymore, I pulled Annabeth away from the door. "We have to get out of here," I whispered.

"No duh," Annabeth made a face.

"Tomorrow," I said calmly. "We'll break out of here. Blackjack will probably be coming to check on us, since that storm cleared up."

"How do we know Blackjack is coming?" she asked.

"We don't," I admitted. "But I'd rather give it a shot than rot in here for the rest of my life."

Annabeth nodded.

**Meanwhile at the town...**

Blackjack's wings had almost completely unfrosted. Thalia had decided they should stay at the town another night and rest. They had grabbed all the weapons they could. Pollux came back and threw wood on the fire. Everyone sat around it and warmed their hands. "Alright," Thalia began. "Everyone knows the plan tomorrow? Katie and Jake will try to find Annabeth and Percy. Meanwhile, the rest of us will hold off the Demigod Hunters until they get back. Any questions?"

Grover raised his hand. "Will Blackjack be coming with us?"

"I don't see why not. His wings are looking better. Plus we need a Pegasus for Percy and Annabeth. Blackjack is probably the only one who can carry them both. "Any one else have questions?"

No one raised their hand. "No? Okay then. Get a good night's sleep everyone. We leave at dawn," Thalia said.

**Author's note: Sorry about my grammar. I edited as much as I could.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

When light came through the cell window, I drew Backbiter. Annabeth's dream kept replaying over and over in my mind. We weren't back in the lab at Manhattan, but it could still happen. "Do you have any idea how to pick a lock?" I asked Annabeth.

She frowned. "You didn't think that far did you?"

"No..." I muttered.

Annabeth pushed me aside. "Give me Riptide."

I was about to say, "What? I thought I gave it to you." But then I remembered that it returned to my pocket in minutes. I took Riptide out and handed it to her. Annabeth stepped back and kicked the door. It flew open. "I...uh...I thought you were going to use Riptide," I said stupidly.

"Percy, this door is ancient," Annabeth rolled her eyes. "They didn't even bother to replace the locks with new ones."

"Oh."

We stepped over the door and stood in the hallway. "Annabeth, I have to do something before we leave," I said.

"Okay. Lets go," Annabeth started walking.

"No." I stopped her. "I'm going alone."

Annabeth was going to protest. "Riptide can't hurt mortals," I cut her off. "So I want you to take Backbiter instead." I took Riptide and put Backbiter in her hand. "Just try not to get caught, okay?"

She nodded grimly. Annabeth kissed my cheek. "You'd better come back, Seaweed Brain." Then she turned and ran in the other direction.

Okay, so what was I thinking when I went to go free Dr. Thorn? I was thinking: _Hey, an extra hand could help. _Yeah, well, it didn't go like that. When I got to the steal door, I pushed it open. Thorn was lying underneath a desert rock, curled into a ball, like a kitten taking a nap. His snoring echoed through the room. I uncapped Riptide and made my way over to Thorn. "Thorn," I hissed.

Dr. Thorn's eyes shot open. They were bloodshot from lack of sleep. A low growl came from his throat. "What do you want?" Thorn snarled.

I raised Riptide. "You want to be free or not?"

A grin spread across his face. He got out from under the rock. "You'll have to break this brace," he said.

"Can't you just, you know, turn into you true form?" I asked.

Thorn laughed bitterly. "And you don't think I've tried? If I do, I'll choke myself to death. They put this collar on me because I could take them easily in my real form. Also, so they feel like they have power over me."

Maybe I could break the brace with Riptide. I walked over to Thorn's side and raised Riptide, "I don't know if this will work."

"Do it," Thorn snapped.

I slammed Riptide on the collar. Lightning shot out from the collar. It traveled through Riptide and into my body. This time, it hurt more than the first time I got hit with the deadly lightning. I screamed. Thorn roared as the lightning traveled through his body as well. Suddenly the collar burst into light. Then the light died away and the brace was on the sand. Smoke rose from it. The pain slowly died away from my body. Thorn glanced at me. "Thanks," he panted.

I nodded. Thorn's body shifted. Lion claws sprang from his fingernails. His scorpion tail came up behind him. When the transformation was complete, he looked like a lion, with a human head, and a scorpion. Not to mention, he was bigger then a truck. His tail hit me in my chest and I hit the rock he had been laying under earlier. "Hey, what was that for?" I demanded.

When he laughed it came out as more of a hiss. "You said you'd help me," I yelled.

"I crossed my fingers," he purred.

I charged at him. But he was faster than I was and he was out the door before I even got close to him. I cursed Thorn under my breath. Thorn would have to wait. I had to find Annabeth so we could find a way out of here. I raced down the hallway. As I turned a corner, I ran into Annabeth. "What were you doing?" she demanded.

"Uh..." I didn't want to say, "Oh. I was letting Dr. Thorn free cause I thought he could help!"Annabeth would probably slap me. "No time. We need to find a way out of here."

I grabbed her hand and pulled her through the hallway. When we came close to a door, someone stepped out. It was the guy I'd fought in the subway before Travis and Connor had blown up the wall. "Jason," Annabeth muttered under her breath.

"Percy Jackson," Jason smiled. "I thought you would have escaped earlier."

Annabeth and I traded swords. Jason held a silver sword in his right hand. I raised Backbiter. Before I did anything, Jason hit his sword on Backbiter. He pushed me back. I slashed Backbiter across Jason's chest. His dark blue T-shirt ripped. "That was my favorite shirt," he muttered.

"It didn't even have anything on it. It was just blue," I said.

Jason tried to cut my arm, but the sword didn't touch me because of my Achilles had a look on his face like, "Great". Annabeth jumped on his back and wrapped his arm around his neck. Jason choked. Slowly he blacked out. "Lets move," I said.

As soon as we turned the corner, I heard a snarl. Thorn stood in the hallway tail raised. He fired a stinger and Annabeth screamed. The stinger went straight through Annabeth's left shoulder and Riptide clattered to the stone floor. "No!" I cried.

Thorn laughed coldly. I ran and slid under his head. Then I took Backbiter and shoved it straight through his brain. His laughing stopped and he made a choking sound before falling over and disappeared. "Don't reform for awhile," I growled.

Annabeth was on her knees, holding her wounded shoulder. She was losing too much blood. I ripped off my Camp Half-Blood T-shirt sleeve. Then I rapped it around her shoulder. Before I tightened it, I asked her, "You ready?"

She bit her lip and I gave her my hand. "Ready."

I tightened it and she squeezed my fingers and they started to turn blue. She didn't cry out though. I wrapped my arm around her waist and helped her stand. We didn't have time to rest. Annabeth winced. I didn't bother to pick Riptide up, it would just appear in my pocket in a few minutes. I held Backbiter in front on Annabeth. Hopefully Jason wouldn't wake up in a few hours. The castle was huge. It was like being in a maze. Finally when we turned left, there was a lab. In the front of the lab was a giant door that probably led to outside. The problem was, there were Demigod Hunters everywhere. Suddenly the door in the front of the lab burst open. Thalia, Grover, and all our other friends from camp started attacking the Demigod Hunters. Katie and Jake ran through one of the other doorways in the lab. Everyone else was fighting. Clarisse stabbed a Demigod Hunter through the chest. Thalia fired an arrow and it hit a dude in the face.

Test tubes on the tables broke as guns fired at our friends. I pulled Annabeth to my chest and ducked behind a lab table. "Percy! Annabeth!" Thalia cried happily.

A Demigod Hunter aimed a gun at us. "Percy! Catch!" Clarisse yelled and threw a watch through the air.

I grabbed the watch and strapped it to my wrist and pressed a button. The watch expanded into a shield. Bullets smashed against the shield. Then they stopped. I peered around the shield and Thalia was standing over the body of a demigod hunter. Thalia walked over to us and smacked the back of my head. "Ow!" I cried.

"Next time, don't leave without us, you jerk!" Thalia snapped.

Then she bent down and hugged Annabeth. "Annabeth, what did you do to your arm?" Thalia demanded.

"Uh..." Annabeth glanced at me. "Thorn was here, and he got free. So he shot a barb through my shoulder."

There was a huge _crack! _I looked around the lab table. Nico was doing his son of Hades thing. Skeletons appeared from the crack in the floor. They attacked screaming demigod hunters. I looked at Annabeth's shoulder. Blood had already soaked through the fabric. Thalia aimed her bow and fired an arrow in some guy's knee. "Since you two are here, I have to go find Katie and Jake. They're looking for you," Thalia told us.

I nodded and Thalia ran through the door Katie and Jake had ran through. Annabeth's forehead was drenched with sweat. I brushed a piece of hair out of her face. "How are you holding up?" I asked.

"Wonderful," she said sarcastically.

I smiled. "We'll be out of here soon and get you some help. Okay?"

Annabeth nodded weakly. I looked at the shield on my arm. My hair was completely blond. My right eye was blue and my left eye was green. _The transformation is almost complete, Percy. _Luke's image replaced mine on the shield.

I ripped the shield from my arm and threw it across the room. The sound of shattering glass filled the air. Cain had thrown Katie Garner across a lab table. Glass test tubes broke against her back. Katie fell on the ground.

**Annabeth's POV**

I saw Katie fall to the floor. My legs just moved. I ran to her side, as a demigod hunter took aim. Everything was happening just like my dream. But it was like I didn't have control over my actions. "No!" Percy yelled behind me.

Just as I got to Katie, a demigod hunter aimed his arrow. I shut my eyes. The arrow never hit me. When I opened my eyes, Percy was in front of me. Like in my dream, he had blocked the arrow. Blood was running down both sides of his mouth. "Percy-why would you..." I trailed off.

"Does it matter? You're alive," Percy smiled like an idiot.

He fell against my shoulder. "No!" I screamed.

Jake pulled Katie back. I wrapped my fingers around the arrow in Percy's back. He held my hand as I began to put it out. Percy groaned in pain. The arrow fell to the floor. It went through his Achilles spot. I laid his head in my lap and he smiled at me. "You're an idiot," I said, tears running down my cheeks.

Percy sat up. Before I could protest, he pressed his lips to mine. It would be the last time I would ever get to kiss Percy. The thought of Percy not being with me, scared me more than anything. Percy fell on the ground and closed his eyes. "PERCY JACKSON, DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME!" I sobbed.

But it was too late. Percy was already gone.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Okay, so I was dead, right? Well, I wasn't so sure. When I died I expected to be standing in the A-Z line thing in the Underworld. Instead, I was surrounded by light. My Camp Half-Blood shirt wasn't dirty or ripped. My jeans didn't have any dirt on them. My hair was black again. Another strange thing was I didn't have to breathe. "Hello?" I called out in the light.

A figure was walking toward me. I couldn't see their face until they came close. They were wearing a leather jacket, sunglasses, and ripped jeans. "How's it going, punk?" Ares asked.

"Well, considering I'M DEAD, not so great," I rolled my eyes.

Ares didn't show any emotion on his face. The light around us shifted. We were standing in the castle. I looked around. Bullets and arrows weren't being fired anymore. Everyone stood in silence. Annabeth was sobbing over my body. My heart hurt looking at the image. Grover fell on his knees and cried. Thalia stood motionless. Tears formed in her eyes. "No..." she whispered.

Nico looked like he was frozen. The skeletons had stopped attacking demigod hunters. Even Clarisse looked sad. She didn't cry though. Pollux was in shock. "Funny how one person's death can effect so many people." Ares shook his head.

The scene shifted to a lab. John was sitting on a chair and Cain walked into the room. "John, Percy Jackson has been killed," Cain said.

John stood up. "WHAT?" he roared.

"One of the soldiers aimed an arrow at the girl, Annabeth. Jackson blocked her and it hit his Achilles spot." Cain kept his head down.

John picked up a chair and flung it across the room. "EVERYTHING IS RUINED NOW!"

"Maybe not, my Lord, we could find and capture a Cyclopes. After all, they are sons of Poseidon," Cain suggested.

"No!" John snapped. "It wouldn't work on a Cyclopes."

The scene faded and we were standing surrounded by light again. "What wouldn't work?" I asked Ares

Ares shrugged. "I don't know."

"Okay, fine. What do you want with me?" I asked.

"How much would you give to be alive again?" Ares put his hands in his jean pockets.

"Whoa. Wait. You're going to bring me back to life?"

"I didn't say that. But you're growing on me."

"Me? I thought you hated my guts? And wanted to kill me?"

"I told you, you are growing on me."

I smirked. "So you can bring me back to life?"

"Yes."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" I asked.

"Just let me give you a warning first, Jackson," Ares said and was suddenly standing a foot away from me. "If I bring you back, you still will have Luke within you." He poked my chest. "He will still be able to come back through you."

"I'll beat him," I told Ares. "Luke won't take over my body."

Ares didn't look pleased with my statement. He sighed and snapped his fingers.

Suddenly I gasped for air and opened my eyes. Annabeth was sobbing over my chest. "It's kind of hard to breath with you on my chest, Wise Girl," I grunted.

She froze and looked at me. I smiled at her. Annabeth threw her arms around my neck. She ran her fingers through my blond hair to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Wait. My blond hair. Ares was right Luke was still there. Annabeth kissed me. I kissed her back. It was great to be alive again! Well, my happiness was short lived. A pain hit me in my gut. I broke the kiss. It seemed like I was choking. I fell on my back. "Percy!" Annabeth cried and was at my side.

I reached in my pocket and grabbed Backbiter. My hand was shaking uncontrollably. "T-Take Backbiter," I put the sword in Annabeth's hands.

Pain took over my body. I screamed. _Your time it up, Percy! _Luke's voice roared in my head.

"NO!" I screamed and grabbed my head.

**Annabeth's POV**

Percy was changing. His face shifted to Luke's; his eyes were blue. The scar on his face was white as the moon. The ground rumbled as Percy's transformation started to end. Percy's scream wasn't his anymore, it was Luke's. Thalia pulled me back. I held Backbiter tight in my hand. The screaming stopped. Luke looked at us. "Hello, Annabeth, Thalia," Luke smiled.

I was in total shock. Nearby, a demigod hunter laid face down on the ground. A gun was in his hand. Luke walked over to the demigod hunter and pulled the gun from his hand. He turned around and aimed the gun. Luke fired it. Bullets smashed into the chest of three demigod hunters. Luke flexed his shoulder. "I must admit, I missed being alive."

Demigod hunters fired their guns and arrows at Luke. All of them bounced harmlessly off him. Luke had Percy's Achilles spot. He laughed as more guns fired at him. Luke ran and grabbed Percy's shield. The bullets defected off the shield. Luke shot the gun. More demigod hunters fell. Nick and Michael came running into the room. Luke spotted them. He charged them and slammed Michael in the jaw with his shield. Luke pressed the gun to Nick's stomach and fired. Nick screamed. "Great. Now I'm out of bullets," Luke muttered.

He grabbed the gun out of Nick's belt. Nick fell on the ground and held his stomach. Luke was a monster. He killed with no mercy. "What are we going to do?" I muttered.

"What do you mean?" Thalia sounded like she was going to cry.

"Luke will kill us," I admitted. "We can't just sit here."

Thalia nodded. My shoulder started to hurt more than it had before. Everyone Thalia had brought with her gathered around us. "What's the plan?" Katie squeaked.

"I don't know," Thalia said.

"Well, we better think of something because when Luke runs out of demigod hunters he'll come for us!" Jake hissed.

Backbiter was in pen form. I wrapped my hand tightly around it. "Annabeth, what are you holding?" Nico asked.

"Percy...gave Backbiter to me...before Luke took over," I said.

Nico's eyes widened. "Can I see the sword?"

I handed Nico Backbiter. He bit his lip. "I might be able to remove Luke's soul from Percy's body," he said. "But we need to make sure Percy is still in there."

Everyone, except Thalia, looked at me. "What?" I asked.

"Well...Percy is YOUR boyfriend..." Connor said.

"No!" Thalia protested. "Annabeth isn't going anywhere; not with her shoulder."

"Thalia, if I have to cut my own hand off to save Percy, I'll do it," I said. "What's your plan, Nico?"

"Since I'm the son of Hades, I might be able to remove Luke's soul from Percy's body. But I think Luke would shoot me before I even got close to him," Nico explained. "So my idea is to have you distract Luke, maybe you can even find Percy in there somewhere. While you're doing that, I'll come up behind him and remove Luke's soul."

"And...uh...how are you planning to do that?" Travis asked.

"Simple." Nico raised his short black sword. "I'll stab him in his Achilles spot because that is the only spot I can hit."

"Wait. Wouldn't that kill him, again?" Jake said.

"No." Nico shook his head. "No, it won't kill Percy. When I take Luke's soul, Percy will still have his Achilles spot."

"What should the rest of us do?" Katie asked.

"Just hide here, and help me if Luke attacks Annabeth or me," Nico said.

"Are you going to use your sword?" Pollux said.

"No. I'm going to use Luke's old sword, Backbiter. That's where Luke's soul was originally, right?" Nico asked me.

I nodded. "Yeah, when Chiron gave Percy Backbiter, part of Luke's soul was still inside. Luke used the sword to enter Percy's body."

"Alright," Nico said. "We have to hurry; it won't be long until Percy, like, really _dies._"

"What do you mean by that?" Grover's voice trembled.

"Once again, I'm the son of Hades, I can tell when people die. But Luke will completely take over Percy in maybe an hour, so lets not waste anymore time with questions, okay?" Nico sounded annoyed.

Pain shot up my shoulder as I stood up. "Let's go."

**Author's Note: You guys didn't really think I'd actually KILL Percy off, did you? Anyway, Ares bringing Percy back to life was really cheesy.**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Luke had almost single handily killed every demigod hunter in the room. Man, Cain was going to be ticked off, after Luke had killed his brother. My shoulder hurt as I walked forward. Luke didn't spot me for a few seconds. When he did, I almost ran away in fear. His eyes were so cold and merciless. I began to wonder if the boy I knew when I was little, ever existed. If he had, I didn't see any of that boy in Luke. I prayed that we weren't too late to save Percy. A grin spread across Luke's face. That made me freeze. Luke started walking toward me. The gun hung at his side. A tear rolled down my cheek. "What's wrong, Annabeth?" Luke hissed.

I couldn't answer. "Well, Wise Girl? Are you scared of me?" Luke asked.

Only Percy was aloud to call me Wise Girl. But there was no emotion in Luke's voice, I couldn't tell if that was Percy or not. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Travis and Connor raise their swords behind a lab-table. Thalia had her bow aimed. Though, all my friends had their weapons ready, I didn't know what use they could be when Luke had the Achilles spot. Then I remembered Nico forgot to even ask me where Percy's Achilles spot was. How was he going to remove Luke's soul now? Luke came closer until he was inches away from me. All I could do was stand there and look into his bitter eyes. When I looked into his eyes, it made me think that maybe Percy was really gone. The scar on Luke's face looked like it was made yesterday. My heart started beating faster. I couldn't find the right words to say. Luke raised the gun, "What? You think I'm going to kill you?"

I couldn't keep my eyes off the gun in Luke's hand. He laughed. "You honestly think I am, I can see the fear in your eyes. I'm not going to kill you without a reason."

"You killed mortals...mercilessly," I muttered.

An annoyed look appeared on Luke's face. "Percy and I, we're not so different. You should have seen him in the village before he came to rescue you," Luke told me.

"W-What do you mean?" I asked.

"Percy killed every single villager there. He showed them no mercy," Luke smiled.

"You're lying! Percy would never..." my voice trailed off.

"Well, it doesn't matter if you believe me or not," Luke said. "Percy is gone and there is nothing you can do about it."

Luke pointed the gun at me. "Wait! You said you wouldn't kill me without a reason!" I protested.

"Yeah, well, I lied," Luke shrugged.

Panic filled my body. The gun never fired. Travis and Connor had jumped on Luke's back. They each had one of Luke's arms twisted behind his back. The gun clattered to the floor. "You know, I never really liked you guys," Luke said calmly to the Stroll brothers.

In a second Connor and Travis were flung from Luke's back. Travis smashed into the wall and slid to the floor. Connor slid across a lab-table and hit the floor with glass in his back. Thalia shot an arrow at Luke. It harmlessly bounced off of his chest. Luke pointed the gun at Thalia and fired. Before the bullet hit her Jake grabbed her legs and she fell as the bullet was planted into the wall. "You ruined the fun, Jake." Luke shook his head.

"Percy!" I cried.

Luke turned his head toward me. Just for a second, I thought I saw Percy's green eyes. "Percy is gone!" Luke snapped.

Grover and Pollux ran at Luke. Luke easily hit Pollux and sent him flying through the air. He grabbed Grover by the neck and lifted him in the air. Grover choked for air. "Luke! Stop!" I yelled crashing into his chest.

He let go of Grover and hit the ground. Grover panted as he took in a deep breath. While Luke was processing what just happened, I bent down in front of Grover. "Try your empathy link with Percy," I told him.

"Do you think it will work?" Grover asked.

"I don't know. But anything could help at this point," I said.

"O-Okay, I'll try," he nodded.

Then I felt someone grab my shirt. Luke threw me back and Grover scrambled away. I landed on my shoulder; I let out a whimper of pain. Luke walked toward me and gripped my shirt. He brought me up so I was face-to-face with him. "Percy, I know you're in there somewhere!" I said.

"I'll say it again, Percy is GONE," Luke snarled.

"No, he isn't," I said.

Luke started getting frustrated. I looked into his eyes and I knew Percy was still in there. Suddenly Nico slammed into Luke. Nico yelled, "Hold him off!"

Katie and Jake stood up and started fighting Luke. Everyone else did the same, except Connor, who was sitting against the wall cheering everyone on. Nico turned back to me. I folded my arms, "Let me guess, you don't know where Percy's Achilles spot is, right?"

Nico smiled. "Yeah."

"So what's your plan?" I rolled my eyes.

He went back to looking serious. "Well, I need you to stab his Achilles spot. Then I'll grab Backbiter and remove Luke's soul. Just don't get killed before then, okay?"

"Got it," I smiled.

Nico handed Backbiter to me. This was going to be fun...not! So how was I suppose to stab or even get to his back?

**Percy's POV**

I felt like I was back in the River Styx. Except, I didn't feel like my body was on fire. I was just floating through the water. Luke had already taken over my body. So why wasn't I dead already? I didn't know who I was anymore. The darkness around me was starting to close in. When it had completely surrounded me, I would fade away. "Percy!" a voice echoed around me.

Who was Percy? The voice said it again. It sounded familiar. But I couldn't remember. "Percy, I know you're in there somewhere!" the voice cried.

It was so familiar. I held my head in frustration. Then just for a second I could see something other than darkness. I could see a girl. She had curly blond hair and stormy grey eyes. Her shirt was orange and said "Camp Half-Blood" on it. I felt like I'd seen her before. Actually more than felt like, I knew I'd seen her. "Percy is GONE!" another voice yelled.

This voice was sounded mean and almost like they didn't believe what they were saying. Who was this Percy guy anyway? I looked at my shirt. It was just like the girl's shirt. Camp Half-Blood. What was that? I heard the name Percy called again. Then I remembered. Percy was _my _name. The girl's name was Annabeth Chase. She was one of the single most important people in my life. "Annabeth!" my voice echoed in the dark.

**Annabeth's POV**

Luke winced for a moment and held his head. "You're not taking over, Percy!" Luke muttered to himself.

My heart skipped a beat. Percy was still there! The problem was: Luke was in the way. Percy couldn't do it on his own, he needed Nico's help. "Luke!" I shouted.

He looked at me with eyes like daggers. Luke dropped Percy's shield and walked toward me. "I've had about enough of you stupid campers," Luke snarled.

I ran at him with Backbiter. Before Luke shot his gun, I slid on the ground. I grabbed Percy's shield and held it in front of me. Bullets bounced off it. I plunged Backbiter into his Achilles spot. "Nico, now!" I yelled.

Nico jumped down from somewhere above me. His planted his feet on Luke's back and gripped Backbiter. Luke howled with pain. "No!" he roared.

A light started coming from Backbiter. Suddenly Luke grabbed my arm and pulled me in front of him. "I'm not dying alone," he growled.

I didn't know what he meant, until he fired the gun. I felt the bullet pass though my rib-cage and out of my body.

**Author's note: Yes, I know. I'm mean.**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Light was all around me. I could hear Luke crying "no" over and over. "I'm not going back!" Luke screamed.

He was being pulled from my body. I could hear a gunshot and screams. What was going on? Suddenly my limbs felt as if, I was on fire. It felt like something was being pulled from my back. I shut my eyes and screamed. "Come on, Percy! Fight back! I can't do this without your help!" a voice screamed.

The voice was Nico's. "I don't know what to do!" I yelled.

"Find the strength to push Luke's soul out of your body!" Nico shouted back.

I felt inside my pocket. Backbiter was still there. How? I had given it to Annabeth. Well, I didn't have time to figure it out. I uncapped Backbiter and pointed the sword to my chest. "Find the will" Nico had said. I stabbed Backbiter through my chest. It burned. Luke's screams filled the air. The light around me started to clear. Forcing my eyes open, I found that I was lying on the ground. Nico had Backbiter in his hand and Luke's soul on the tip of the sword. The skeletons Nico had called earlier came forward. Each grabbed one of Luke's limbs and dragged him in the crack in the ground, back to the Underworld. The crack in the ground closed. Nico stood a few feet in front of me. He had Backbiter stabbed in the ground so it could support him. "That...was...fun," he panted.

I just laid there. Luke was finally gone. I remembered the gunshot and the screams. Who had gotten shot? I slowly moved my head on the ground. My heart almost stopped. Annabeth laid on the ground with a bullet wound going right through her lung. She was breathing heavily. Thalia held her. I forced myself to stand up. "Annabeth!" I cried, stumbling over to her and Thalia.

Tears ran down Thalia's cheeks. "Luke...shot her before you broke free."

I knelt down next to Annabeth. She smiled at me. She WAS NOT going to die. An idea passed through my mind. I picked Annabeth up in my arms. "What are you doing?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth choked up blood. She laid her head against my chest. "Percy..." she muttered.

"Where is Blackjack?" I demanded.

"All the Pegasus are waiting outside. But where are you-" I didn't stick around to listen to what Thalia was going to say.

"Nico!" I yelled. "Come on!"

Nico ran after me. When I got to the door, my friends were waiting for us. Chris and Clarisse started pushing the doors open. Katie and Jake helped Connor and Travis stand up. Cold wind blew in my face. _Hey, boss! _Blackjack greeted.

I didn't answer and ran over to him. Everyone started climbing on their Pegasus. I put Annabeth on Blackjack's back. Then I climbed on and sat behind her. "Nico, we need to shadow travel," I said.

"What?" Nico said.

"Annabeth isn't going to make it if you don't help us shadow travel!" I yelled.

Nico took a few moments to think about what I would do to him if he could of helped save Annabeth, but didn't. He looked at me and nodded. Nico climbed on his Pegasus. I could tell Nico had barely any energy left. Thalia threw a cell phone to me. "Call us when you get there. Then get rid of the phone."

Suddenly we were surrounded by darkness. There were strange noises all around us. "W-What's going on...?" Annabeth asked.

I wrapped my arms around her. "Sssh," I brushed her hair. "We're going to get help."

Then we were standing by a hospital. The mist helped us being unnoticed. The mortals around probably thought Blackjack was a motorcycle. Quickly, I climbed off Blackjack and picked Annabeth up. Nico weakly got down from his Pegasus. We rushed to the Emergency Room. Annabeth was starting to close her eyes. "Stay awake, Annabeth!" I told her.

The doors to the Emergency Room opened. "Help!" I cried.

Doctors and nurses came rushing toward us. They laid Annabeth on a bed and started to push her away. "Annabeth." I tried to follow them, but a nurse held me back.

Nico put a hand on my shoulder. My heart was beating a thousand miles an hour. "Where are we?" those were the only words I could say.

"San Francisco," Nico panted.

"I'd better walk a couple of miles and call Thalia," I sighed.

"No, no." Nico put up his hands. "Let me."

"No. Really, Nico, it's okay. I'll do it. Plus, you need to rest anyway."

"Percy, they're going to want to know what happened to Annabeth," Nico said. "You're better at coming up with excuses then me."

He grabbed the phone and walked out the doors. A nurse walked up to me. "You're the boy who brought the girl with the gunshot wound, right?"

"Is Annabeth going to be alright?" I demanded.

"Right now, she's in critical condition," the nurse sighed. "We'll have to keep her over night. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

I shook my head. She smiled weakly and we sat down on some nearby chairs. "What is her name again?" the nurse asked.

"Annabeth Chase."

The nurse started writing on a clipboard. "How did this happen?" she asked.

"Annabeth, my other friend, Nico, and I were shooting targets. She fired the gun and somehow the bullet bounced back and hit her."

"And where were you shooting targets?"

"Uh... We were at Annabeth's house, in her backyard." I remembered Annabeth's dad lived in San Francisco.

Nico came through the doors. "That was fast," I said.

The nurse stood up. "Is there a number we can contact you by?"

I glanced at Nico. "Uh, I think we'll be staying here."

The nurse nodded and went back to her desk. I turned to Nico. "How'd you get back so fast?" I asked.

"Percy, we don't have to use cell phones. I just sent an Iris Message to Thalia." Nico shrugged.

"Oh," I nodded. "How long will it be until the others get here?"

"Thalia said a few hours. Oh, and I sent Blackjack and my Pegasus back to Camp Half-Blood," Nico said.

We sat in the waiting room chairs for hours. No one told us anything and they wouldn't let us go back to see Annabeth. I didn't think Luke would actually _try to kill _Annabeth or even Thalia. "Thanks, Nico," I said.

"For what?" he asked.

"Removing Luke's soul from my body."

"It was nothing."

The doors opened and Thalia came racing in. The others weren't far behind. "Where's Annabeth?" Thalia demanded.

"She's in critical condition, right now," I said. "They won't let anyone see her."

Thalia made a face and sat next to me. Connor limped in and sat next to Travis. We waited. Finally a nurse came out. "Annabeth Chase?" she read off her clipboard.

I stood up, so did everyone else. The nurse said, "Uh...could I just see one of you? Is one of you is named Percy?"

"Yeah. I am." I raised my hand.

The nurse nodded and motioned for me to follow her. Thalia mouthed the word _Go _to me. I followed the nurse. She took me down a hallway. "How did you know one of us was named Percy?" I asked.

"Miss Chase has been asking for you. She either asks, "Where's Percy?" or "Is Percy okay?". So you're her boyfriend, I take it?" the nurse said.

I nodded. "Yeah."

The nurse smiled and continued down the hallway. We came to a window. I looked in. Doctors were working on Annabeth. The monitors around her were beeping slowly. She was barely alive. "She is in critical condition. I'm very sorry to say, but I would be surprised if she made it through the night. She can hardly breath. That bullet went straight through her left lung." the nurse shook her head.

I pressed my forehead against the glass that separated me from Annabeth. Tears ran down my cheeks. I couldn't let Annabeth die. "It's getting late," the nurse pointed out. "You should probably get some sleep."

Weakly, I nodded and walked back to the waiting room. "Well?" Thalia demanded.

"They don't think she'll make it over night," I muttered.

Thalia almost instantly started to tear up. Grover hung his head. "Does anyone have a coin?" I asked.

Pollux felt inside his pocket and threw me a coin. I went to the bathroom and turned the sink on. "Oh, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, please except my offering." I threw the coin in the water.

Annabeth's dad was messing around in his study with some model airplanes. "Mr. Chase?" I said.

He jumped and turned around. "You're Annabeth's friend, Percy, right?" he said a little shocked.

I nodded. "Look, we have a problem. Annabeth was shot and the doctors here don't know if she's going to make it. Can you come and pick me and a few of my friends up? We kind of haven't slept in a long time," I said.

"What happened to Annabeth?" Mr. Chase demanded.

"I'll explain when you pick us up," I told him.

Mr. Chase pursed his lips. "I'll be there in about fifth teen minutes."

The image disappeared. I went back out to the waiting room. "Annabeth's dad will be picking us up in fifth teen minutes," I told my friends.

"Whoa. Wait, I'm not leaving, Percy. Not until I know Annabeth is alright or..." Thalia couldn't finish.

"We all need a good night's sleep. We'll come back tomorrow, okay?" I said.

Thalia looked at the floor. I didn't want to leave either, but I hadn't slept well in weeks. A van pulled up in the parking lot. Mr. Chase walked in. "Can I see Annabeth?" he asked us.

"They let me see her, but only for a few minutes. She isn't aloud the have visitors right now," I said.

The nurse from before came back out. "Are you Miss Chase's father?" she asked.

"Yes," Mr. Chase said.

He started talking with the nurse and gave her his home and cell phone number. We piled into his small van. Most of us had to double buckle. Travis and Connor rode in the trunk. When we got back to Mr. Chase's house it was like two in the morning. Mr. Chase's house was pretty big, so we all got our own bedrooms. I fell asleep in five minutes. For once, I didn't dream.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The sun shined in my eyes through the window. I groaned and pulled the covers over my head. For a second, I thought I was back at my Mom's house. Then I remembered everything that had happened the day before. The smell of bacon and eggs filled the air around me. I swung my feet off the bed. Last night, I didn't really get a good look at the room I slept in. There was a nightstand next to the bed. The window was lined up perfectly with the bed, so the sun could shine in your eyes. The carpet was a dull gray color; the sheets on the bed were a plain, boring, light brown. An alarm clock sat on the nightstand. It said eight-thirty-seven. I rubbed my eyes and looked around for my shoes. One of them was under the window, and the other one was on the opposite side of the room in a corner. My socks were also scattered around the room. I placed my bare feet on the gray carpet. Yawning, I opened the door. Annabeth's brothers, Bobby and Matthew, raced pass my door. I think it was Matthew running with a toy airplane and Bobby chasing after him.

I could smell the bacon coming from the kitchen. Connor slept in the room on the right of my room. Thalia slept in the room left of me. Her door was opened, so I guess she had already woken up. Connor's door was closed. He'd probably sleep in a few more hours. His back was killing him. I remember last night, Mr. Chase had taken Connor in the bathroom and removed the glass from his back. I walked down the hallway. Pictures of Bobby and Matthew hung on the walls. But I saw just as many pictures of Annabeth. I saw one when she was a little kid, before she ran away. She was climbing on her dad's back messing up his hair. I smiled and continued down the hallway. Mrs. Chase came out of one of the bedrooms. "Hello, Percy," she greeted warmly. "If you're looking for the kitchen, take the stairs at the end of the hallway and you should be able to find your way."

"Thanks," I smiled.

I walked to the end of the hallway and looked down the stairs. It looked like the staircase from the Titanic, except it was white. There was a marble floor. White carpet covered the stairs. I walked down the steps. When I got to the bottom, I could see Mr. Chase cooking in the kitchen. "Percy! How did you sleep?" Mr. Chase smiled.

"Great," I said sitting down at the table.

Everyone was up, but Connor. Thalia had her fingers curled around her glass of orange juice. Clarisse and Chris were talking about something at the end of the table. Pollux was starring at at a bowl of grapes on the counter. Katie and Jake just sat at their seats and didn't say anything. Travis looked bored out of his mind. Grover looked like the only one who was actually somewhat enjoying himself. Nico had his arms folded on the table and was resting his head on them. A few minutes passed and I noticed Clarisse glaring at me. "What?" I snapped.

"I was just wondering, why didn't you feel the need, to TELL us Luke was taking over your body?" Clarisse growled.

She had a point. I didn't want to tell them. Though, at the time, it probably would have been nice to know. Well, you can't turn back time, unless you're Kronos. "I don't know." I shrugged.

I thought smoke was going to start coming out of Clarisse's nose, but her face just got red and she turned away from me. "Say whatever you want guys," Travis said. "I thought you turning into Luke was sweet!"

Thalia looked at him and cocked her head. "Are you metal?"

"No! I mean the transformation was freaking awesome!" Travis said.

"I thought you were scary," Jake muttered.

"Yeah," Pollux agreed. "I thought you were going to shoot us."

"I kind of thought it was cool," Chris muttered.

"Me too," Nico said.

Clarisse punched Chris's arm. "Ow! What was that for?" he yelped.

Thalia kicked Nico's legs under the table. "Hey!" Nico cried.

"Alright, guys, no fighting," Mr. Chase said.

Clarisse folded her arms and glared at Chris. He smiled innocently. "So what about you, Katie? Did you like it was 'cool' or 'awesome' that Percy almost killed us all?" Thalia asked the daughter of Demeter.

Katie shrugged. "I didn't enjoy thinking my life was going to end any second."

"Hey, it's not my fault!" I protested.

Mr. Chase turned around and had a huge stack of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. As soon as he set it on the table, we tackled it. Travis shoved two pancakes into his mouth. Nico ate five pieces of bacon at once. I wolfed down my eggs and bacon. I hadn't had a good meal in forever. When I was done, I sat back in my chair. "I'm stuffed!"

Thalia gulped down another glass of orange juice. Mr. Chase stood at the front of the table, unable to say anything. "You...the pancakes...what am I suppose to eat now?" Mr. Chase said.

"I don't know," Travis picked a piece of bacon out of his teeth. "But my complements to the chief!"

Mr. Chase sighed and starting cleaning the table. "You shouldn't really do that. I think, Travis, Chris and Nico should clean up for you," Clarisse offered.

"HEY!" they all protested.

Grover laughed a little. "What are you laughing at, Goat Boy?" Travis snapped.

I stood up and looked out the window. They had a pool. Wow. Annabeth had failed to tell me so much about her house. "Mr. Chase, can I swim in your pool?" I asked.

"I guess," he said. "But I don't have any clothes for you to wear when you're done."

"No problem," I smiled. "I'm a son of Poseidon; the water won't get me wet, unless I say it can."

Mr. Chase just looked at me in shock. "Okay...go ahead then."

I walked out the kitchen door. The water in the pool was calm. The weather outside was perfect for swimming. I dived in. When I'm in water, I could always think better. I was enjoying myself, until I saw a certain son of Hades looking in the water. My head burst through the surface of the water. "What do you need, Nico?" I asked.

"The hospital just called," Nico told me. "Annabeth isn't in critical condition anymore. They're allowing one visitor at a time to see her."

"Awesome!" I climbed out of the pool. "Are we going to see her now?"

"No. Everyone needs a shower and stuff like that," Nico said.

"Blah," I muttered.

Nico and I walked back up to the house. Travis and Chris were washing the dishes. "Is Connor up yet?" I asked them.

"Yeah, he's in the living room with the others," Chris said.

Nico led the way to the living room. Clarisse, Thalia, Grover, and Jake were sitting on the couch. Pollux was sitting on the floor watching TV. Katie was reading a book in the corner of the room. Connor was sitting on the love-seat. He looked pretty bad; he wasn't wearing a shirt and his chest was wrapped up and he winced every time he moved. Nico plopped down next to Pollux and they started watching an old _Clash of the Titans _movie. "Cheesy graphics," Pollux muttered.

"You look like you want us to do something," Clarisse told me.

How did she know? "Well, actually, I think that you guys should go back to Camp Half-Blood and tell Chiron what's happened," I said.

"Whoa, I'm not going anywhere," Thalia snapped.

"I think that Thalia, Nico, and I should stay here. After all, we're the ones that John wants," I admitted.

"Personally, I would like to go back to camp," Pollux said. "It would be nice to relax for awhile."

It took awhile for me to convince Clarisse to leave. She was so stubborn. I didn't want anyone else to get hurt because of me, Nico, or Thalia. Mr. Chase volunteered to take the other back to camp, since he had a plane. But Katie and Clarisse refused to go back to camp before they had a hot shower. The Chases' house had like five bathrooms, all of which, had showers. Mr. Chase let us barrow some of his clothes, while Mrs. Chase washed our Camp Half-Blood T-shirts. By noon, everyone was dressed and ready to go. Mr. Chase started his plane and everyone, but Thalia, Nico and I, loaded into the plane. "We'll see you guys in maybe a week," Thalia yelled over the roar of the plane.

"Bye, Percy," Grover said.

"I'll you later, G-Man," I smiled.

The plane took off. "I'll take you guys to see Annabeth," Mrs. Chase told us.

It was a little awkward in the car. Annabeth had told me her step-mom hated her. So I didn't really expect Mrs. Chase to be concerned. Matthew and Bobby had a baby-sitter that Mrs. Chase had called earlier. We pulled into the hospital parking lot. I wasn't sure what to expect. Would Annabeth be awake? Or be in too much pain to move? We walked up to the front desk. "Annabeth Chase," Thalia said.

The nurse typed something in on the computer. "Miss Chase is on the top floor, Room 872," the nurse said.

"Thanks," I said.

"Only one of you may see her at a time," the nurse told us.

We went to the elevator and pressed the top floor button. The doors opened and we stepped onto the top floor. "She said Room 872, right?" I asked.

"Yeah." Thalia smacked the back of my head.

"Room 868, 869, 870, 871...here! Room 872," I said.

"Percy you should go first," Nico said.

Thalia didn't comment. I nodded and turned the door knob. The door creaked open; I stepped into the room and shut the door behind me. The room was pretty big. There was a bathroom, with a shower and everything. A TV hung from the ceiling in front of the bed. Annabeth laid on the bed motionless. If had wanted to, she could have looked out a window right next to her bed. I looked out the window; it was a pretty sweet view of the city. I silently pulled up a chair next to Annabeth. She was sleeping. I smiled and brushed her blond hair off her face. Her eyes opened. "P-Percy?"

"Hey, Wise Girl," I said.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Sorry? For what?" I asked.

"For keep having to save my life."

"It's fine," I told her.

Annabeth winced. "How are you feeling?" I asked her.

"Other than, I'm hardy breathing, in horrible pain, and my shoulder stinging from Thorn's stinger, I'm great," Annabeth smiled weakly.

"You'll be out of here in no time," I whispered.

"Is John gone?" Annabeth asked me.

I put my hand on the bed and held her hand. "No. But I really don't care about him, right now. I just want you to be okay."

Annabeth squeezed my hand. Tears rolled down her cheeks. "Hey, hey, don't cry," I said and wiped away a tear.

I sat on the bed and swung my feet up. I pulled Annabeth close to my chest. "I just want to go back to camp," Annabeth whispered.

I wrapped my arms around her, "I do too."

She started to drift to sleep. I looked out the window. I wanted to go back to camp. But I knew I couldn't. Not until I found out what John and his Demigod Hunters were planning. Thalia opened the door. Annabeth was still sleeping. "I just got an Iris Message from Chiron," Thalia said softly. "Josh and Tom have gone missing from camp."

Just as she finished, Nico yelled, "Percy! They're here!"

Mrs. Chase screamed. She crashed into a wall. Nico had his sword out. Thalia cursed and aimed her bow. I stood up and drew Backbiter, which I was shocked was still in my pocket. "Stay here," I told Annabeth.

Thalia and I raced out to the hallway. Our dear friends, Cain, Jason, Mark, and Michael were coming down the hallway. Cain's gaze was locked on me. He probably blamed me for killing his brother, Nick. "You take Cain, Nico and I can handle the other three," Thalia said.

Cain ran at me and held a huge sword in his hands. The sword was probably taller than me. He brought it down on Backbiter. Energy rippled from the collision. Two more familiar faces joined the fight. I kicked Cain's chest and he stumbled backwards. "Josh, Tom," I growled.

Josh was dressed in jeans and a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. A sword was strapped to his back. Tom was wearing a white T-shirt and shorts. A sword was at his side. "Hey, Percy," Josh grinned. "How's everything been going?"

"Not so great since you're here," I said. "So what's in it for you guys?"

"What do you mean?" Tom stepped in front of Josh.

"You guys are working for these scumbags, right? Are you two even demigods?"

"Actually," Josh began. "I'm not. When they said I was a son of Hermes, it was all an act. I never met Luke. John just did some research on you and your little friends. I was some homeless kid living on the streets; the Demigod Hunters took me in. So I owe them."

"I wasn't lying when I said I was a son of Hephaestus," Tom admitted.

"Josh, why did you act like the Demigod Hunters were your enemies?" I asked.

"I needed to get close to you," Josh said. "I needed you to show me the location of Camp Half-Blood. When we got there, Tom is a demigod so he allowed me to enter camp. We wanted to know how many demigods were there. How many could fight us. It was just too easy! Once I was in, I placed bombs all around the camp. John can simply push a button anytime he wants too. When he does, bye-bye campers," Josh laughed.

Thalia was pinned against the wall by Mark. Jason was pressing Nico to the floor. What could we do? I couldn't send an Iris message, not now; if I did John could blow it up. "Oh, yeah, John gave us orders to kill the daughter of Athena," Josh told me.

Then Cain and Michael grabbed my arms and slammed me against the wall. Backbiter clattered on the floor. "NO!" I screamed.

Josh slipped the sword off his back. He slowly began walking toward Annabeth. I tried to fight Cain and Michael, but they were too strong. Josh raised the sword. Annabeth squeezed her eyes shut. I looked around for some kind of source of water. The bathroom in Annabeth's room, there was a sink. Suddenly water was knocking Cain and Michael to the ground. The sink had and Nico had broken free of Jason and Mark. Nico pointed his black sword at Jason's throat. Thalia swiftly killed Mark in his ribs. I grabbed Backbiter and ran toward Josh. I jumped and tackled Josh. Well, we didn't land on the floor. No, we had to crash out the window. The glass shattered. "PERCY!" I heard Annabeth cry.

Josh grunted and struggled. I held him so that when we hit the ground, he'd take the impact. "Sorry," I said just before we hit the cement.

Josh's eyes and mouth were open. Blood ran down the sides of his mouth. He was dead. I stood up as people scream in horror. My Achilles spot really came in handy sometimes. Thalia and Nico couldn't hold off Cain, Mark, Michael, Tom and Jason by themselves. I ran back inside the hospital and took the steps. My legs felt like they were going to fall off. "Nico! Thalia!" I yelled when I got to the eighth floor.

Water was all over the floor. I didn't see any demigod hunters. Nico and Thalia's voices were in the distance. I ran to Annabeth's room. "Percy!" Annabeth cried happily.

"Where did the Demigod Hunters go?" I asked.

"When you and Josh crashed through the window, they took off. By the way, is Josh-?" Thalia said.

"Dead. He's dead." I put Backbiter in my pocket.

"The gods want to see us, Percy," Nico said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I don't know."

"Can't it wait? We have to warn Chiron about the bombs," I said.

Then in a second we were transported to Olympus. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Athena, and all the other gods looked down at us from their thrones.

**Author's note: Man! That was a long chapter! People that write chapter this long for every chapter, I don't know how you do it! Sorry for any grammar errors.**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"Hey, uh, Zeus, what's happening?" I said.

When the gods wanted to see us, it was never a good thing. Athena glared at me, as if was my fault the Demigod Hunters had been made. Wait. Never mind, it _was _my fault. I was the one who was suppose to kill John as a little kid. "The Demigod Hunters are growing stronger everyday," Zeus said.

"I think that they should have been destroyed years ago," Hades grumbled.

"Yes. They should have," Zeus agreed.

"Which bring us to the reason why we called you here," my dad said.

"We want to send you three back in time," Zeus began. "You will kill John Martin as a child, so that he does not grow up and become what he has."

In my dream, Thalia, Nico, and I went back in time, Thalia and Nico killed John's parents. But none of us could kill John, who was just a kid at the time. If we went back, nothing would change. John would still become the world's first Demigod Hunter. "Well, Percy Jackson?" Zeus asked.

"I'm sorry, Zeus," I said. "But I can't let you send us back."

Zeus's face turned red as the sun. "Why not?" his voice boomed.

"It's just...I had this dream," I sighed. "I saw John's parents murdered. There were three people in masks; one girl, two boys. The girl and one of the boys killed his parents. The other boy looked for John. When they found him, he was scared and crying. None of them could bring themselves to kill a kid. So they fled the scene. I saw them take their masks off...the murderers were Thalia, Nico, and I."

Zeus just glared at me. "So this is _your _fault?" he said.

"No! I mean, not exactly. In the past, we did go back in time to kill John which didn't work out so well...does that make sense?" I asked.

"No," Zeus growled.

"Okay, so I can't really explain it. But if we go back in time, I promise you, I will not be able to kill a kid. I refuse," I told Zeus.

He looked like he was going to strike me down with a lightning bolt. "Percy, I don't think it's a good idea to argue with my dad," Thalia hissed.

"No," I snapped. "I'm sick of the gods pushing us around. Scaring us into doing what they want. I refuse to kill John Martin. He'll just become what he already is. Nothing will change if we go back in time."

My dad was about to say something, but I stopped him. "Don't. Please, just send me back to the hospital, with Annabeth," I told the gods.

Before I knew it Thalia, Nico and I were standing back in Annabeth's room. "We're back, sorry," I said to Annabeth.

"Huh? Back from where? You didn't go anywhere," Annabeth told us.

"Oh. Then never mind," I smiled.

Annabeth made a face. She never believed me. But I was too tired to explain everything to her. I pulled a chair next to Annabeth's bed; Thalia and Nico did the same. I thought about Josh and Tom. Okay, so Tom was probably a bad choice to bring back to camp, he had tried to kill me a number of times. Josh I was a little shocked that he wasn't a demigod. He totally acted like one. I would probably be hearing about his death at some point. The mist might of helped some. Then I remember what Josh had told us. There were bombs all around camp. "Thalia, Nico, we need to send an Iris Message," I said. "We need to warn camp about the bombs."

Thalia nodded and stood up. There was water everywhere anyway, so Thalia just flipped a coin into the water. "Oh, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering," Thalia said.

A picture started to form. "Chiron!" Thalia shouted.

"Eh? Thalia? Why did you send the others back?" Chiron asked.

I walked over next to Thalia. "Uh...That was my idea, but there's something else we need to talk about."

"Alright, what is it?" Chiron sounded a bit annoyed.

"We need you to evacuate camp," I told him.

"Evacuate camp? Why?" Chiron asked.

"Well, we found Josh and Tom," I said. "They're with the Demigod Hunters. Josh told us that...there are bombs all around camp."

"Bombs?" Chiron almost shouted.

There was an explosion in the background. Chiron ducked as a piece of a cabin flew over his head. We were too late. The picture was starting to fade. "Chiron!" I cried.

"Percy-" I heard Chiron's voice, but then the image faded.

Dammit! I slammed my fist down on the table next to me. "We were too late. The bombs have already started going off."

"Percy," Thalia said. "We can't help them now. We're on our own."

I knew she was right. We couldn't help them. Annabeth weakly touched my arm and I relaxed a little bit. I sat back down. "I'm going to use the bathroom real quick," Thalia told us and walked out of the room.

She didn't come back. Two hours passed. Nico was pacing the room. Annabeth had fallen asleep an hour ago. "Where do you think she is?" Nico asked.

"I don't know," I said. "Do you think we should go look for her?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah."

When we went out into the hallway, nurses were cleaning up the mess we had made. The mist must have replaced the image of Josh and I falling because none of the nurses even looked up. We continued down the hallway. I didn't see anything out of place. It looked normal-aside from all the water on the ground. When we came to the stairs there was blood on the wall. "I-Is that Thalia's blood?" I asked Nico.

"How should I know?" Nico muttered. "Thalia isn't dead, if that's what you're asking."

I bit my lip. Nico through the staircase door. More blood was on the ground. Then I looked farther down the steps. Thalia bow was laying on the ground-covered in blood. The Demigod Hunters' had taken her.

**Author's note: Sorry, short chapter.**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

I was standing back in John's castle. The lab was clean and there was a huge machine sitting on the left side of the room. It looked like something out of a Sci-Fy movie. The machine almost looked like a...ring, I guess. Below the ring was a bunch of computers and tech stuff like that. In the ring, there was what looked like something to hold hands and feet. Suddenly a door opened. A couple of Demigod Hunters came in, two of them carrying Thalia. They lifted her up in the machine and strapped her hands and feet in. Five Demigod Hunters were at the controls. John and Cain came in to the room. John stood in front of the ring. Mark pushed a table to John. Then John laid down on the table and Mark strapped him in.

A scientist hit a red button and blue lightning shimmered through the ring. Jason put IVs in John's arms. The IVs came from the ring. Suddenly Thalia screamed in pain. The lightning was traveling through her body. It flickered under her skin. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. "She's unstable!" Jason shouted.

"Don't let her die on us now!" John yelled.

Jason hit a bunch of buttons. "Stable," he sighed.

I looked at John. He groaned in pain. I could see the lightning through the IVs. What the hell was happening? Thalia was still screaming in pain. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?" she screamed.

John was crying out now too. His body was thrashing around violently. I looked at his eyes. They had rolled back into his head. My head shot toward Thalia again. She was desperately trying to pull free of the machine. Tears poured down her cheeks. But they weren't _tears_, like water tears. No, they were tears of blood. It wasn't only her eyes that had blood coming out of them, she sounded like she was almost choking on blood in her mouth. Blood ran down the sides of her mouth.

Then everything stopped. John's eyes were closed. Steam came off his body. Thalia hung limp in the ring. Jason and Mark rushed over to John. Cain stood motionless in the doorway. "John!" Mark shouted.

John grunted and opened his eyes. "D-Did it work?" he asked.

"I don't know," Jason said and unstrapped John from the table.

John sat up and got off the table. Scientists unstrapped Thalia from the ring. She fell and hit the ground hard. But she didn't seem to feel. Was she alive? "What about the girl?" John growled.

Mark knelt down and felt Thalia's pulse, "Alive."

"How do you feel, John?" Cain asked.

"I feel _great," _John grinned.

He extended his hand. There was a clap of thunder and lightning shot out of John's hand. It slammed into Mark. Mark hit the back wall and slid to the ground. My heart stopped. Thalia had shot lightning at me before, but I'm sure that was nothing compared to what John just did. Cain ran over to Mark."He's dead," Cain stammered.

Oh my gods. John had found a way to _take _demigod powers. There was no telling what he could do if...it hit me like a ton of bricks. John's plan; why he had wanted Thalia, Nico, and I so badly. He wanted to take our powers and use them for his own selfish needs. Lightning flickered in John's eyes. "I think it worked rather well," John smiled. "Wouldn't you say Perseus Jackson?" John looked right at me and shot a lightning bolt at me.

"Percy!" a voice called.

I opened my eyes to see Annabeth looking at me with concern. Her hands were holding my face. Sweat dripped off my forehead. "Sorry," I said and grabbed her wrists.

"What was the dream about this time?" Annabeth sighed.

I was about to tell her, then I noticed Nico wasn't there. "Where's Nico?" I demanded.

"H-He just went to go get a drink," Annabeth said. "Why? What's wrong?"

"I can't explain now." I stood up. "But I have to find Nico before they do."

I dashed out of the room. A nurse was still cleaning up the water and I stopped to ask her where Nico was. "Excuse me, but have you seen a boy, black hair, probably wearing a black shirt with a skull on it. He's this tall." I showed her how tall he would be.

"Nope, sorry, hun." she shook her head.

I continued to run down the hallway. Gods, I hoped that hadn't found him. "Nico!" I yelled.

I crashed into someone when I quickly glanced in a room. "Ow!" Nico yelped.

"Nico! Thanks gods they didn't get you," I said.

"What are you talking about, Jackson?" Nico asked me.

When we got back to the room, I told Annabeth and Nico everything. About how John had taken Thalia's powers and how he somehow knew I was there. "So what you're saying is, John wants to take the powers of the children of the Big Three's powers and use them to destroy the gods?" Nico said.

"Yeah," I nodded. "There's no telling what he could do with that kind of power. I saw him kill Mark with one hit. And Thalia...I'm not sure if she'll be alive when and if we ever find her."

Annabeth bit her lip. I knew it was hard for her to hear that Thalia might already be dead. "We have to go get her," Annabeth said.

I looked at Nico. "What?" he asked.

"How would you like to Shadow Travel again?" I smiled.

He frowned. "I hate Shadow Traveling! It always makes me feel like I have a hangover!"

"Please, Nico?" Annabeth asked in a sweet voice.

Nico's face turned bright red. "S-Sure."

"Great. I'm going to use the bathroom down the hall," I told them.

As I walked down the hall, a hand touched my shoulder. I whipped around only to find Annabeth. "You scared the shit out of me," I growled. "If you're going to ask me, if you can go with us, the answer is no."

"But why?" Annabeth protested.

"Because of that wound," I hissed. "I don't want you to get hurt anymore."

She put her hand on the side of my face. "Percy, please?" she asked in a small voice.

I gripped her wrist. "No. Annabeth, please don't ask me again."

Annabeth pursed her lips. I wrapped her into a hug and we kissed passionately for a few seconds. I broke the kiss and pressed my forehead to Annabeth's. "Just come back, okay?" she closed her eyes.

"I will, I promise," I told her.

I let go of her and started walking toward the bathroom. When I got there I locked the door behind me. I flipped the sink on and threw a coin in the water. "Oh, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering," I chanted.

An image of Chiron appeared. "Percy! Thank gods it's you!" Chiron said.

"What happened? Is everyone okay?" I demanded.

"Percy, I'm sorry..." Chiron's voice trailed off.

"Sorry? About what?" I asked.

"Some campers...didn't make it."

"What? Who?"

"The bombs started going off after Mr. Chase dropped the your friends off. We had just started helping Connor with his wounds. The first bombs went off. All the campers raced out of the camp but...Connor didn't make it."

My heart sank. "What about the others?"

"Travis is wounded but alive. Percy, you'll have to tell Annabeth...Malcolm didn't make it either. Katie Garner and Jake Mason died because they were standing right next to a bomb when it went off. They didn't feel any pain; the shock would have killed them instantly." Chiron said in a sad voice.

I hung my head. It was my fault they were dead. It was my fault Travis didn't have a brother anymore. It was my fault for ever trusting Tom and Josh, because of me Annabeth lost her brother. It was my fault Katie and Jake were killed in the explosion. If I hadn't sent them on that plane they would still be alive. "What about Grover and the others?" I asked.

"They escaped with minor wounds. How are Thalia, Nico and Annabeth?"

"The Demigod Hunters took Thalia. I know why they want Thalia, Nico and I. John wants our powers. I saw him steal Thalia's powers then kill a guy named Mark. I think he's going to use our powers to somehow destroy the gods."

"Yes. You are probably right. In that case, I want you to be on guard, be aware of the people around you. We can't rist you or Nico being captured."

"Chiron, they have Thalia. From what I saw, she looks like she could dead any second," I said. "Nico and I are going after her."

"No!" Chiron snarled. "If you go back there, you'll be playing right into John's hands. They took Thalia because they knew you and Nico would come after her. It's a trap."

"I know that," I snapped. "But I will _not _stand by and let Thalia die."

"Is Annabeth coming with you?" Chiron asked.

"I told her she couldn't because she isn't completely healed yet," I said.

"Percy, it might be a good idea to take Annabeth," Chiron told me. "If you and Nico get your powers taken, you're going to be weak. So Annabeth could help you if that happens."

"Yeah, or she could get killed."

Chiron knew he couldn't convince me. "Well, just make sure you kill John. We don't want him killing anymore demigods than he already has."

"I'll try," I said and waved my hand through the image and it faded.

* * *

"Alright, Nico, you ready to go?" I asked.

"Sadly, yes."

"Just keep in mind you can't rest when we get there," I told him. "I'll need your help to find Thalia." I turned to Annabeth. "I'll see you in a little bit, with Thalia," I smiled.

Annabeth smiled weakly and gave me a hug. "Keep your promise," she said as she pulled away from me.

"I will." I grabbed the sleeve of Nico's jacket and then I was surrounded by darkness. Strange noises were all around me. My face felt like it was going to be torn off. Then I saw a light. Nico and I were standing in front of the castle. Cold wind blew in my face. Before we even opened the door, hands grabbed us.. Someone hit with a cub in the back of my head. It must of had that stupid blue lightning because I felt it and blacked out.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

I woke up in that stupid cell I was trapped in with Annabeth. When I tried to sit up, I was pulled back to the floor. Chains were around my hands and feet. Wonderful. I looked around. Nico was chained to the ground next to me. Thalia was chained to the wall. "Nico!" I hissed.

He grunted and opened his eyes. "Whoa," he said, as he looked at the chains around his hand. "The son of Hades doesn't like to be chained!"

"What a surprise! Hades loves to chain people!" I mocked.

"Shut it, Jackson!"

"Both of you shut it," Thalia snapped.

"Thalia," I said. "What happened to you?"

"You already know, don't you? John took my powers," Thalia replied weakly.

"How? Why are you so weak?" Nico asked.

"I don't know how John took my powers. But when he did...it turned me mortal," Thalia told us. "You guys shouldn't have come. Once he has all our powers, he could kill the gods."

"No kidding," Nico muttered.

When I tried reaching for my pocket, the chain held my hand back. I guess, the Demigod Hunters had planned it this time. "Damn, I can't reach Backbiter," I growled.

"Hey, Thalia, when they take our powers...will it hurt?" Nico asked stupidly.

"No! It feels like butterflies in your stomach! YES! It hurts!" Thalia snarled.

I smirked for a moment. Then an idea popped into my head. "Nico, can you summon any undead soldiers or hellhounds or something?" I asked.

Nico tried to and screamed in pain. Lightning sparked through his body. "No..." he groaned.

Well, there went my beautiful plan. Wind blew in from the only window in the cell. Thalia shivered. We were stuck here. When I tried to reach for Backbiter again, the chains zapped me with lightning. I didn't try to reach for it again. My arms we were starting to feel numb. I lost track of time. How many hours had passed? Nico and I were just waiting for someone to come get us.

When the door opened I jumped. Cain glared at me from the doorway. He grabbed Thalia's hair and made her look at him. "How does it feel to be mortal?" Cain asked.

Thalia spit in his face. "Why you little-" Cain raised his hand.

"Don't touch her!" I warned.

Cain looked at me and smiled. He released Thalia's hair and knelt down in front of me. His hand gripped my chin and forced me to look at him. "What can you do about it?" he grinned.

I tried to pull my hand free but I got shocked instead. "I'll kill you one way or another, Cain," I growled.

"Oh, just like you murdered my brother?" Cain scoffed. "You have no idea how hard it is not to take your sword and shove it straight through your head."

"I know the feeling," I said.

Cain growled and grabbed his sword in his belt. He raised it and a voice yelled, "CAIN!"

John Martin stood in the doorway with his hands behind his back. He came into the cell and pointed his left hand at Cain. Lightning shoot out of John's arm and slammed into Cain chest. But it didn't kill him. It only knocked him down and burnt his shirt. "I didn't send you here to kill Mr. Jackson," John said calmly. "I sent you here to get the son of Hades."

Cain stood up slowly. "Sorry. I guess I got carried away."

"Well, don't let it happen again." John turned and started out the door but stopped and looked over his shoulder at Cain. "Or next time it will be _you _in the body bag."

John was gone. Cain looked at his feet. "Why do you let him push you around?" I asked.

"He could kill me in a second, demigod," Cain said. "Besides, I enjoy wiping your kind from the face of the Earth."

Cain kicked my arm and went over to Nico. He took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the chains from Nico's wrists and ankles. When Cain backed away, Nico jumped up and punched Cain in the face. Cain flew back and hit the stone wall. Nico tried to run out the door, but Cain pulled out a knife with blue lightning racing through it. He stabbed Nico in the arm and he screamed in pain.

Nico fell to the floor, unconscious. Cain grunted and picked Nico and slung Nico over his shoulder. "I'll be back for you later, Seaweed Brain," Cain grinned.

"I swear, if you hurt Annabeth I'll kill you!" I threatened.

"After John takes your powers, which includes your Achilles spot, you won't be able to do _anything,"_ Cain laughed. "Oh, and the daughter of Athena is on my kill list."

At that moment, I didn't care if I died or if John took my powers. Cain was going to kill Annabeth and I couldn't do anything about it. Cain's laughter echoed as he walked down the hallway.

* * *

Nico's screams were all around me. It was the most horrible sound I'd ever heard. The screams were endless. Then the screams stopped. Minutes later Nico was brought back into the cell. Smoke rose from his clothes and skin. His eyes were closed. Nico trembled on the ground. John came back to the cell. "You're next Perseus," he smiled.

John extended his arm and a crack appeared in the floor. Two skeleton soldiers rose from the ground. Their eyes were glowing green. John nodded toward me and the skeletons broke the chains and carried me to the machine. After I was strapped in, Cain put IVs in my arms. "I'll all be over soon," Cain laughed.

Cain stepped away from me. I felt the machine power up.

At first, nothing. No pain. No lightning. No anything. Then a spark of blue lightning hit the outside of the ring. Pain exploded from my body. I screamed. It felt like my very soul was being ripped from my body. It felt like I was being killed one cell at a time. My vision was going out. I can barely see John. He looked like he was in a lot of pain too. But that didn't make me feel any better.

Blood poured out of my mouth. It would have felt better to have someone split you open while you're awake. That would have been less painful. I could feel blood coming out of my ears, nose, and mouth. It felt like hours. Desperately, I tried to pull free of the machine. However, it only caused me more pain.

The room was spinning. One second I was looking at Cain the next I was looking at my dad's face. Maybe, I was going to die right here, right now. It was like I was living in my memories. I remembered my tenth birthday. There was a blue birthday cake. All my presents were wrapped in blue paper. Then I was fighting Mrs. Dodds again. Chiron gave me Riptide.

I was back in the car when the Minotaur attacked. I saw my mother "die". Then I killed the Minotaur. Next thing I knew I was meeting Annabeth Chase for the first time.

_"You drool in your sleep," _Annabeth told me.

Then I was accused of stealing Zeus's lightning bolt. I was standing in the Underworld, talking to Hades. All my memories passed in front of my eyes. Now, I was in the River Styx. Then I was showing Annabeth where my Achilles spot was. Then I saw Luke kill himself for the world.

I watched my dream when I saw Nico running through the forest. Then I was watching when the Demigod Hunters took Annabeth. After that we found her. Luke took over my body and Nico saved me. I remembered everything.

_"Just come back, okay?"_

_"I will, I promise."_

I couldn't die, not now. As I floated back into the present, the pain was worse. When would it be over? Suddenly, the machine stopped. The pain was still there but it would go away at some point. Smoke started to rise from my body. My blood drenched my shirt. Someone unlocked me from the machine and I fell to the ground.

That fall hurt more than everything in the world. It was the sign of defeat. They won, I lost. I couldn't believe my powers were gone. I couldn't lift my head so I looked straight ahead. There was a cup of water on the table. Cain knocked it down. "Go on, son of Poseidon; see if you can heal yourself."

The water spread out. I reached my hand out and let in drop into the water. Nothing happened. It didn't make me feel better or heal my wounds. Cain and Jason laughed. The water my hand was in, rose from the ground. John controlled it and splashed it in my face.

My body hurt so bad, I couldn't move. Even breathing hurt. I almost just wanted to end my suffering and die right there. Jason dragged me back to the cell. He didn't bothering chaining me up because I wouldn't be able to move for a while.

**Author's Note: Happy 4th of July to every one of my views that lives in the US! I live in the US too...but I'm just updating because today is a holiday in my country. I'll update as soon as I can! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and stuck with the story this long.**


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Okay, so have you ever watched the Disney movie _Hercules? _Well, remember when Hercules shook hands with Hades and Hades took Hercules's strength? Then Hercules looked like crap and felt like crap? Yeah, that was how I felt. I felt like Hercules from a Disney movie. Nico was still passed out. Thalia just starred at nothing. I laid against the wall and tried to come up with a good plan. Even to think it hurt.

"How's it going, mortal?" Cain asked as he opened the cell door.

I didn't-couldn't answer.

Cain laughed and knelt in front of me. He grabbed my hair and made me look at his ugly eyes. "Well, you will be put out of your misery soon," Cain told me. "John wants us to blow this castle up. I'm not sure why but he said to leave you guys here. When we blow it up, you'll die. There will be no chance of you or any of your friends defeating John."

"Go to hell," I muttered.

"Isn't that where all souls go? To Hades? To the Underworld?" Cain scoffed. "I'm telling you, Perce, you should have become a god. It would have been real fun killing you."

"The gods will defeat you. If not them, the campers at Camp Half-Blood will," I said.

"Percy, you have to face the fact sooner or later." Cain shook his head. "The gods will fall. So will your precious camp. Oh. Wait, it already has."

"I'll let you kill me, slowly, if you want," I muttered. "Please, don't kill Annabeth."

"Oh, that is so tempting. However, John wants the girl dead. Do you know why?" Cain's grip tightened in my hair. "Annabeth Chase is the only person in the world that knows where your Achilles spot it. Well, besides me. But you don't have it anymore. John does. I can't risk John being killed by the little brat."

"I'll kill you before you even get the chance," I told him.

"Sure, you will," Cain smirked. "Just believe whatever you want, little hero."

Cain left the cell. What could I do? Nothing. It was hopeless.

Nico finally woke up an hour later. "Man, I have a headache that could kill Zeus," Nico groaned.

Thunder rumbled outside. Zeus didn't like people talking about him, I guess. But I guess it was okay for him to talk about killing us? Sure! Because he's the king of the gods! Whatever. "Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty," Thalia muttered.

"Hey, I wasn't asleep for that long, was I?" Nico asked.

"You missed hearing Percy's screams when they took his powers," Thalia said. "He screams like a little girl."

"Shut it, Thalia!" I snapped. "I saw them take your powers, how would you like me to tell everyone that you, Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus, couldn't defeat yourself against a couple of mortals when they were taking you to the machine?"

"What's your problem, Jackson?" Thalia growled.

I half expected lightning to strike me down right then and there. But nothing happened. "Guys, come on, don't fight," Nico pleaded. "We're all stuck here together so we might as well come up with a plan to get out of here."

"Gee, Nico, what do you think I've been thinking about? Fluffy bunnies and rainbows?" Thalia said.

"We're not going to get out of here," I muttered.

"Don't be negative, Percy," Nico said.

"This coming from the son of Hades?" I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, we're not getting out unless Nico suddenly gets his powers back and shadow travels."

"Why?" Thalia asked.

"Cain told me they were going to blow up the castle, with us still inside it," I said. "Besides, even if we did get out, we would freeze to death in the cold. Either way, we are so dead."

"Great," Nico muttered.

"Why do demigods always have to die horrible deaths? Most demigods don't even make it out of their teen years! Why to we have to be punished? It's not like we choose our parents," Thalia protested.

"Because that's the way it's always been," I snapped. "I guess that's the way the gods like it."

"Well, it's not fair," Nico muttered.

A knock came from the cell door. Cain peered in through the window. "Just letting you know we're leaving now. So I hope you guys enjoy the last hour of your life."

I decided that I hated Cain more than anyone else. More than Kronos. More than Luke. More than anyone I had ever known in my life.

* * *

"How much time do we have left?" Nico asked.

"Who knows?" Thalia muttered.

Since I wasn't chained to the ground anymore, I drew Backbiter and stood up. "Whoa! Percy, killing yourself isn't going to solves anything!" Nico protested.

"What-? I'm not going to kill myself! I was just going to break the chains holding Thalia," I stammered.

"Oh," Nico said. "Its just-Hades doesn't like it when people kill themselves and...I'll shut up now."

"Thank you." I shook my head in disbelief. Nico didn't REALLY think I would kill myself...did he?

The chains holding Thalia weren't very strong because it only took me one hit on both of the chains holding her hands. Thalia rubbed her wrists, which were red from hanging there for so long. "So what are we going to do?" Thalia questioned. "Are we going to try and survive the cold? Or just stay here?"

"No, I just thought your arms might have felt numb." I slid back down the wall.

Footsteps echoed down the hallway. Nico's head shot up. "I thought they were gone."

I was still holding Backbiter and was ready to kill anyone who came through the door. The door opened and I ran at the person standing there. Backbiter hit a celestial bronze dragger. "Gods, Percy! If you wanted to break up with me, just say so!" Annabeth scolded me.

"No-I don't-I mean, I thought you were someone else." I stepped back.

Thalia ran up to Annabeth and gave her a hug. Nico just stood up and leaned against the wall. After Annabeth and Thalia were done hugging Annabeth wrapped her arms around me. She looked into my eyes. "Uh...Percy, why do your eyes look so...I don't know, dead?" Annabeth asked.

I backed away from her. "John...took your powers and now he has all of them. So Thalia, Nico, and I are just normal humans. No special powers or anything. But the good news is I don't have to worry about my Achilles spot anymore...because that's gone too."

"What? Why did you let him do that?" Annabeth protested.

"It's not like we _wanted _him too. They just...caught us off guard. And man, I'm telling you, if I have to feel THAT kind of pain to get my powers back, I'll stay mortal," Nico said.

I capped Backbiter and put it back in my pocket. "I'd love to stay and catch up, but this place is going to blow any minute," Thalia said.

I nodded. "So how are we getting out of here, Annabeth?"

"You're not going to like it, but my mom is taking us back to Manhattan," Annabeth told me.

Athena was probably still mad at me...but I guess if she saved us from dying. Thalia grabbed my arm, "Come on, Percy."

We ran down the hallway. The walls had bombs covering them. It said we had one minute to get out before _boom! _Athena was standing right outside the castle. She made a face when she saw me. "I changed my mind, Annabeth, I will not save _him_," Athena sneered.

I knew she was talking about me. "Mom!" Annabeth said.

Athena sighed. "Fine."

There was a flash of light and suddenly we were standing in the center of Manhattan. Though, it didn't look like Manhattan. Cars were flipped over. People were running and screaming in all directions. Windows had been smashed. Thunder clouds hung above the city. Lightning flashed. "W-What happened here?" Nico stammered.

"John Martin and his damned Demigod Hunters," Athena said.

John did all _this_? Could he do that? "Percy Jackson," Hermes said suddenly behind me. "Zeus would like to speak to you. He isn't too happy about all _this_."


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Hermes was _so _right. Zeus was not happy with me. Like, it was my fault? Hey, I'd like to see Zeus be put in the machine! See if he wants anyone to yell at him afterwards! "Percy Jackson, you convinced us _not _to send you, Mr. id Angelo, and my daughter back in time to kill John Martin," Zeus growled. "Now, John has somehow managed to destroy Manhattan. Maybe you would like to tell me why you wouldn't go back in time?"

"If I did, John would be the same as he is now," I said.

"For some reason, I do not believe you." Zeus leaned back in his throne. "So in punishment for causing this mess, you will be sentenced to a thousand years on an abandon island, with no food, and no water." Annabeth's hand tightened in mine. "Unless you kill John and his followers."

"It's too dangerous for Percy to fight!" Annabeth protested.

"Annabeth, don't," I whispered.

Zeus raised an eye brow. "Why?"

Annabeth bit her lip. "John Martin found a way to take demigod powers. He took Percy's. Thalia and Nico are too. All three of them are mortal. This means Percy no longer has his Achilles spot, John does. All of them could die if you make them fight."

"I'm not sending my daughter out to fight in this war," Zeus snapped.

Thalia stepped foreword. "Father, John took my powers. I want them back. You can't stop me from fighting."

Zeus knew he couldn't win and sighed. "So be it. You say John has the Achilles spot? If that is the case, then that is how you will kill him. However, keep in mind Perseus Jackson, if Thalia dies, you will spend two thousand years on an island."

Then he waved his hand and we were standing back in Manhattan. "What now?" Nico asked.

"We get some weapons and search for John," I said.

"In case you forgot, Percy, you are the only one who has a sword, all I have is my shield," Thalia said.

"I only have my knife and Nico doesn't have anything," Annabeth noted.

"I think we could spare a few swords!" a voice yelled.

I whipped around to see Clarisse coming out of the ruin. Behind her Chris, Travis, Grover, and Pollux followed her. "Annabeth!" Grover said and gave her a hug.

Clarisse starred at me. "What?" I asked.

"My dad told me you were mortal, is it true?" Clarisse said.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Zeus is going to put me on an island unless I kill John so being mortal is going to be a problem."

"Well, we've got your back." Clarisse hit my back.

I almost fell. Man, if this was what mortals had to look foreword to I hoped I didn't have to stay like that. Chris handed a sword to Nico. Grover passed a sword to Thalia. I drew Backbiter. "So any idea where John actually is?" Clarisse asked.

"John isn't going to make you look," someone yelled.

The voice belonged to Cain. He had a big grin on his face. Behind him stood Nick, Mark, Jason, Tom, and Michael. How was that possible? Mark, Nick, and Michael were dead. "In case, you're wondering how we're still alive, you can thank the son of Hades," Nick laughed.

"Clarisse you take Nick, Chris take Jason, Pollux and Nico you have Mark, Thalia and Annabeth I want you to take Michael, Travis get Tom," I told my friends. "I have Cain."

"Hey, what about me?" Grover asked.

"Do you really want to fight, Grover?" I said.

"No. I'll just uh...look for John and I'll come back and tell you if I find where he is," Grover told me and hurried off.

Cain took out a sword hanging from his belt. The Demigod Hunters pulled out different weapons-spears, knives, swords, and clubs. Thunder struck and the battle started.

I hit Cain sword with Backbiter. "You don't know how long I've waited for this," Cain told me. "I'm glad you got away from that castle so now I can kill you myself."

"I'm thinking the same thing," I said.

Cain was stronger than I was. He was human, but he could have been a boxer. Cain easily pushed me back and brought his sword down. It clashed with Backbiter. Cain growled and grabbed my shirt with one hand, while holding his sword with the other, and threw me.

My skin got scrapped as I hit the ground. Cain raised his sword. I rolled out of the way as Cain brought his sword down. I scrambled to my feet. Cain was pretty determined to kill me. I lashed out with Backbiter. The blade cut through Cain's sleeve and made a large gash in his arm.

His blood dripped down his arm. "You little brat," he snarled.

"Hey, it's not my fault you suck at defending yourself," I said.

Cain slammed his sword into Backbiter. I could tell his strength was fading because of the cut on his arm. I just had to make sure he didn't kill me before I killed him. He starred at me in hate. Then Cain kicked my feet out from under me. I landed on the ground and shut my eyes because I knew it was over. "Percy!" Thalia yelled.

My eyes shoot open as Thalia threw me her shield. I grabbed it quickly and held it in front of me. Cain's sword hit Thalia's shield. I peered out from behind the shield. Cain was distracted for one second. I took that second the drive Backbiter through his stomach.

Cain's eyes were wide with surprise. Blood trickled down his mouth. He made a choking sound and hacked up more blood. I took Backbiter out of his stomach. Cain blinked and fell backward. His sword had fallen from his hand. I stood up and kicked the sword away so he couldn't make a last move.

He glared up at me with hateful eyes. I knelt down next to him. "You'll never...win," Cain hissed. "John..will kill you...and your friends."

"We'll see about that," I said.

Cain's hand shot up and shirt my shirt. "I'm not sorry...for what I've done throughout my life," he told me. "My only regret is that I couldn't take you to the...Underworld with me."

I grabbed his wrist and tried to pull his hand away from my shirt, but he had a death grip on it. "I don't plan on going to the Underworld anytime soon."

Cain's hand suddenly shot from my shirt to my neck. He was choking me! I tried to get his hand off my throat but he refused to let go. He was leaving me no choice. I raised Backbiter and brought it down on his hand. The blade sliced right through his wrist.

He was going to bleed out in a second. I stood up and back away from Cain's body. He took one last hateful glance at me before closing his eyes. His eyes didn't open again. Cain was dead.

"NO!" someone screamed behind me.

I turned around. Chris Rodriguez was on the ground, lying in a pool of his own blood.

Jason stood over Chris. He had an evil smile on his face. Then he raised his knife over Chris. Clarisse was desperately trying to break free of Nick, who was holding her back. I knew they were going to force Clarisse to watch as Jason killed Chris.

I grabbed Thalia's shield and hurtled it at Jason. It slammed into his chest. He flew backwards and hit a tipped off car. I ran toward Nick and sliced his arm. He cried out and let Clarisse go. Nick stumbled as he tried to stop his arm from bleeding.

Then I jumped on his back and held Backbiter to his throat. I cut his throat then jumped off his back. Yeah, you could call it murder, but I call it self-defense. I didn't really have time to think about right and wrong.

Jason stepped away from the car and grunted. "I'm going to feel that tomorrow."

Clarisse had tears in her eyes. She gripped her sword and charged at Jason. Before he could even react, Clarisse stabbed her sword in his chest. Jason got a shocked look on his face and his body slipped off her sword. I looked over at my other friends. All the Demigod Hunters but John were dead. I knelt next to Chris.

Clarisse knelt on the other side of Chris. He was still alive, but I knew he wouldn't be for long. Jason's sword had went through his shoulder. I decided to give Clarisse and Chris some space and stood up. I walked over to Jason and picked up Thalia's shield.

I had never seen Clarisse cry. _Never. _But she was. I wanted to help Chris, but I couldn't. He had lost too much blood. Thalia took her shield back. Annabeth slipped her hand into mine. "Is there anything we can do?" she whispered.

"No," I said. "We can just let him die a hero's death."

I let go of Annabeth's hand and walked toward Clarisse. I touched her shoulder, "Clarisse, we have to go."

She hit my hand off her shoulder. "I'm not leaving him," Clarisse said.

Chris grabbed Clarisse's hand. "Clarisse, you have to go. I'll be fine. Please?"

I knew Chris was lying through his teeth. He'd die after we left. Clarisse stood up and pushed passed me. She didn't want to leave Chris. But we needed her help. "I'm sorry, Chris," I told him.

"Its okay, Percy," he said. "It wasn't your fault. Just make sure you kill John."

"I'll try my best," I sighed.

Chris nodded and smiled. Then his face froze. My heart dropped. He was dead. I knelt down and closed his eyes. Then I looked back at my friends, "Let's go."

**Author's note: Thank God! Cain is finally dead! He was a jerk! Sorry I killed Chris off. But I promise everything will work out in the end. Demigod Hunters will probably be ending in a few more chapters. I don't think it will make it over thirty chapters. Later!**

**-Angle of Darkness1337**


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

As we started walking toward the Empire State Building, a hand grabbed my pant leg. I looked down and saw Mark gripping my pant's leg. "W-Wait," Mark said.

I pulled my leg away from him. "What do you want?" I growled.

"J-John...he's going to attack Olympus," Mark told me.

"He can't possibly think that he could take on _Zeus, _let alone the other gods by himself," Pollux said.

"You don't know John. He's different. You've got to stop him," Mark pleaded.

"Why would _you_ want us to beat John?" I asked.

"He killed me. Then brought me back, but I haven't been alive that long," Mark replied.

I nodded. "We'll try our best.

Mark smiled weakly and released my pant leg. He rolled over on his back and starred at the sky. Rain started coming down from the dark clouds. "Come on," I said and walked toward the Empire State Building.

"Percy, what are we going to do once we find John?" Annabeth asked.

"We'll have to stab his Achilles spot," I said. "That's the only way to kill him."

"Yeah, the only problem is: getting to that spot," Travis noted.

"Annabeth and I are the only ones who know where it actually is," I told them.

"So we'll distract him, while you two get close enough to kill him, right?" Thalia asked.

"Yep, that should do." I reached for the Empire State Building's door.

A small shock went through my body. I winced and continued to open the door. Inside, it looked like a lightning storm had blown through it. Burn marks covered the floor. Bodies laid scattered on the floor. They had burn marks on them too.

A figure stepped out from behind a pillar. "John," I said under my breath.

His head snapped toward me. John's eyes were green, but they reminded me of Thalia's eyes because it looked like lightning was flashing. Somehow, his eyes also looked dead, like Hades.

"Percy, I'm so glad you could make it," John purred. "Though, I didn't expect you to make it away from the castle. Tell me, how did you get away and not freeze to death?"

"Athena," I replied.

John nodded. "Alright, then. When I kill her, I must remember to make it painful."

Annabeth tried to step toward John. I put my arm in her path. "Don't," I whispered.

"What happened to my Hunters?" John asked.

"Dead, they're all dead," Clarisse growled.

"Well, that won't do will it?" John sighed, shaking his head.

His arm shot out. A green crack appeared in the ground. The whole building started to shake. Pieces of the ceiling began falling down. "What's he doing?" Grover shouted.

Green mist was forming over the crack. It got so thick, we couldn't see John anymore. Suddenly, the shaking stopped. Someone started to appear out of the mist. Though, it wasn't John.

"Hello, Jackson," Cain growled.

Cain eyes were glowing green. When we was completely out of the mist, I noticed that the left side of his mouth was eaten through to the bone. His shirt had scorch marks all over it. Dirt was underneath all of his fingernails and in his hair. Cain's right shoe had to tip of his burnt off so his toes were sticking out.

"Whoa, dude what happened to you? You look like crap," I said.

Cain's face twisted. "Fields of Punishment. Not a pretty place. I don't have plans to go back there any time soon."

John had disappeared. Cain studied my face. "He's gone to Olympus," he told me. "But if you want him, you'll have to go through me first."

"I killed you once, it shouldn't be to hard to kill you again," I growled.

Cain grinned and charged at us. But his speed wasn't human speed. A sword appeared in his hand. I was frozen. Did he hit me? I didn't see any blood. I turned around to my friends. Cain was standing behind Travis. Blood dripped from Travis's stomach.

Travis looked down at his stomach and looked at me with innocent eyes. Then he fell on his knees and fell backwards.

"TRAVIS!" I cried.

"I'm different now, Percy. I'm not alive, I'm dead. Honestly, I feel like a zombie. Though, my speed has increased my strength too," Cain said.

My eyes couldn't leave Travis. I had let his brother to die and now...I couldn't keep Travis safe. The weight of how many friends had died because of me was crushing me.

"Percy! Move!" Annabeth tackled me.

Cain's sword barely missed her back. My friends had scattered throughout the room. Annabeth grabbed my shirt and hulled me to my feet. We ran behind a pillar. Annabeth pulled her knife out.

"Annabeth, that won't work on Cain," I hissed.

"He's not mortal anymore, Percy. Like he said, he's like a zombie," Annabeth told me.

I drew Backbiter and peered out from behind the pillar. Cain was bending down to pick up his sword. Then Pollux raised his sword and charged at Cain. Swiftly, Cain whipped around and grabbed Pollux's blade.

"NO! CAIN, DON'T!" I yelled.

Cain laughed and broke Pollux's sword in half. Then he kicked Pollux's face. Pollux flew backwards and slammed into the wall. Cain took a piece of Pollux's broken sword and hurtled it at him. I felt Annabeth grab my sleeve and hide her eyes. The blade hit Pollux's throat.

I knew he would bleed out. I ripped my eyes away from the horrible sight. At that point, I thought we really couldn't win. "I'm sorry, Jackson! Was that your friend?" Cain howled with laughter.

I growled and Annabeth grabbed my arm. "Percy, please, don't," she whispered.

I ripped my arm from her hand and charged at Cain. He grinned and easily blocked my attack. Cain foot tripped me and I landed on my face. Quickly, I rolled on my back. Backbiter had fallen out of his hand. "Got you," Cain laughed and raised his sword.

The sword never hit me. I opened my eyes. Clarisse had taken the blow. The sword had made a bloody gash in her back. Clarisse grunted and stumbled. She hit the ground. "C-Clarisse, why? I thought you hated me," I stammered.

"M-Maybe I did at first. But it doesn't matter. You _have _to kill John. Before the gods fall," Clarisse told me. "Percy, when you kill John, get a punch in there for me, okay?"

I nodded weakly. "Clarisse..."

"This is sad, but I really have to get back to killing you now," Cain growled.

He grabbed Clarisse's body and threw it across the room. "No!" I cried and grabbed Backbiter.

I got to my feet. Cain didn't waste any time. I knew I would die if I didn't do something...fast. Cain said he was like a zombie. How do you kill a zombie? _How do you kill a zombie? _I tried to think straight and remember all those zombie movies I had watched. Kill the brain, kill the zombie.

Cain was pretty dedicated to killing me. I hit his face with the hilt of Backbiter and ran toward Thalia. "The head," I panted. "Aim for the head."

Thalia nodded. "I'll tell the others. In the meantime, don't get killed."

Suddenly a hand grabbed the back of my shirt. I was thrown into a desk. "Ow," I muttered.

"I didn't say I was done with you," Cain snarled.

In a few short minutes, I was thrown every single place in the room. I would probably get a black eye. I wouldn't be surprised if my face was purple. I saw Nico and Thalia behind a pillar. Grover threw a piece of the ceiling at Cain.

He growled and whipped around. I took my last chance and stabbed Backbiter through the back of Cain head. Cain turned to look at me. I took Backbiter out of his head. The green crack in the floor opened back up and the green mist started dragging Cain back into the Underworld.

"NO! I"M NOT GOING BACK!" Cain screamed.

He wasn't a match for the mist. Cain disappeared in seconds. "That's another victory for us," Thalia said.

"He killed half of us," I muttered. "It sure as hell is not a victory!"

Thalia held her hands up. "Sorry. But we don't have time to argue. John is probably destroying Olympus right now."

I stood up. We went to the elevator and as soon as the doors closed we shot up toward Olympus.

**Author's note: Wow. This is like the major kill chapter. Like I said before everything will work out in the end. Man, do you guys think Cain is like the major a-hole or what?**


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Olympus was _destroyed. _Everything was starting to crumble. Where was Zeus? Why didn't he stop this? "We're too late," Grover said.

"No," I snapped. "We can still stop him before he destroys the gods."

"By the looks of it, I'd say the gods aren't even here," Thalia said.

"Yeah, they probably went into hiding." Nico folded his arms.

It was probably true. Like always, the gods wanted _us _to clean up the mess. Only if we all were killed would they take on John themselves. "Percy, what exactly are we going to do when we find John?" Annabeth asked.

"I don't know," I said.

"Well, he's got the Achilles spot, so the chances of us lucking out and hitting it are very slime," Thalia scoffed.

"Annabeth and I are the only ones that know where it is," I snapped. "Which means you guys will have to not get killed while we get close enough to stab it."

"So we're just supposed to die, like the others?" Nico growled.

"I told you _not to get killed,_" I spat.

"Look, our ADHD kept us from dying in battle, but now we're just mortal. We'll probably be dead by the time you guys get close enough," Thalia said.

"Fine! Don't help! Just know that if we fail, the gods are done. That means, the world will go with them. So pick: your life or the world," I snarled.

I continued to walk. When I looked back, I saw Thalia following. Though, she didn't look happy about it. We were probably walking into our deaths. But we had to make sure John died.

The gods' throne room was trashed. Athena's throne was smashed, along with Hermes, Ares, my father's, and all the other gods' thrones. All of them, but one. Zeus's. John Martin sat on Zeus's throne like he had every right to do so.

John looked more...threatening than he had before. His eyes kept changing colors. But lightning still flashed in them if they were green, blue, or brown. One of his legs was hanging off the throne (which looked strange considering the throne was meant for the gods who were like ten feet tall). The other leg was pulled up on the throne. A sword was lying against John's shoulder.

The sword had to me at least a foot wide. Like Backbiter, on one side of the blade was celestial bronze and the other edge was tempered steel. The hilt was black as night. There was something written in Greek on the sword, but we were too far away and I wouldn't be able to read it because I was mortal. Attached to John's arm, was a round shield. A spear with blue lightning shining off it was painted on the shield.

I looked at John's face. He didn't look tired or anything. It almost looked like he was bored. I noticed that his hair had grown longer. The scar on his face looked really white. John was smiling at us mockingly.

John gripped the hilt of the sword and _flew _down from Zeus's throne. The flying thing I _know _didn't come from Poseidon and it sure as hell didn't come from Hades. I looked at Thalia and mouthed, "I didn't know you could fly."

She mouthed back, "Neither did I."

John put his sword's blade on his finger. It was completely balanced. He grinned at us. "My sword's name is Nightbane," John told us. "Did you know I could concentrate my powers through it? Well, I guess not. Humph."

"What?" I growled.

"I thought there would be more of you," he shrugged. "Let me guess, you couldn't protect your friends so Cain killed them, right?"

I wanted to rip his head off. Annabeth grabbed my arm. John laughed and shook his head, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Temper, temper. As you know, I can't leave you alive because you know where MY Achilles spot is. And I know from your girlfriend knows where it is as well. As for the rest of you, you all just annoy me and I have no more use for you."

John flipped Nightbane into the air and the hilt landed in his hand. I starred at Nightbane. That sword was HUGE. I looked at Backbiter in my hand. Could Backbiter stand up to a sword like that?

Suddenly John pointed Nightbane at us. "DUCK!" I yelled.

We all fell to the floor as a lightning bolt shot out of Nightbane. I shielded Annabeth from the lightning. I opened my eyes. Smoke was coming off of Nightbane. In an instant John was in the air, with Nightbane above his head.

"Move!" I yelled.

We all jumped out of the way just in time before Nightbane slammed into the ground. The coalition made an explosion.

"We are _so _dead," Nico said.

I wanted to yell at him, but we didn't have time to argue. The dust cleared and John ran at us again. We separated, running in different directions. I knew John was going to go after Annabeth or me first. Annabeth.

I stopped dead in my tracks and whirled around. Annabeth was running and holding her shoulder. I knew her bullet wound hadn't completely healed yet and she was in pain. I gripped Backbiter tighter and ran toward her. She tripped and fell on the ground. John appeared in front of her and raised Nightbane.

I got there just in time for Nightbane to slam into Backbiter. "Attack me if you want, but don't attack my friends," I snarled.

John laughed. "I'm stronger than you, Jackson! In case you haven't noticed, I have the Achilles spot, plus your powers and all the other power of the Big Three's children!"

"That doesn't mean you can't be killed!" I protested.

John grabbed my shirt and threw me. My back slammed into a broken pillar. "Percy!" I heard Annabeth cry.

I painfully stepped away from the pillar. Blood trickled down my forehead. John raised an eye brow. "Good. I'm glad your going to fight. That will make it more fun to kill you."

My body hurt. The thought of just letting John kill me was temping. I gripped Backbiter and charged at John. He hit my head with the hilt of his sword and leaped on Zeus's throne. "YOU'LL HABE TO DO MUCH BETTER THAN THAT IF YOU WANT TO KILL ME!" John scouted.

I panted and wiped some blood off my forehead. When I started to walk toward John, Annabeth put her hand on my chest. "Percy, you don't have to do this. We could run. Go somewhere where John wouldn't find us," Annabeth whispered.

I grabbed her wrist. "We have to face him sometime. I'm not going to run. If I die trying to kill him, at least I died trying."

"But I don't want anyone else to die," she protested.

I pressed my forehead to her's. "I'm not going to die, okay?"

She pursed her lips. I began to limp toward John. He jumped down from the throne and punched my stomach. "Ack!" I hacked.

I grabbed John's face and pushed him back. He hit Zeus's throne. Then Thalia jumped on his back. He snarled and threw Thalia off his back. She scrapped across the floor. Nico tried to stab John, but his sword bounced off him. Nightbane slammed down on Nico's sword.

Nico grunted and John pushed Nightbane. Nico's feet were pushed into the ground and John began to push him backwards. That was my chance. I ran up behind John and was about to stab his Achilles spot when he kicked Nico back and swung around to me. "Hello, Percy," he smiled and sent lightning through my body.

I screamed in pain and fell on my knees. A green crack split the ground in front of me. Three skeletons rose out of it. The pain was too much and I fell on my back. Once the lightning had stopped, my body still hurt like hell. The skeletons had grabbed Nico. Two holding his arms, the third holding a knife to his throat.

John wasn't in front of me anymore. He was standing in the middle of the room. A shockwave came from his body. Olympus was crumbling.

I looked at Thalia her foot was caught under the remains of Zeus's throne after the shockwave destroyed it. A pillar was being held up by a rope. If it snapped Thalia would be crushed.

John looked at Annabeth and reached his hand out. Water shot toward her and she was blown at the edge of the crumbling Olympus floor. Her feet danged over the edge. "Percy!" she screamed.

Grover was trapped under a bunch of ruble. He would be crushed if I didn't get him out.

John held his hands out. "Choose, Percy Jackson. You can only choose one of your friends before they die."

"W-What?" I stammered.

"Each one of your friends' life is in danger. You may choose one to save. However, keep in mind that you only have about two minutes," John said.

I grabbed Backbiter and charged at him. He blocked my attack and kicked my feet out from under me. I smacked my face on the ground. I forced myself to look at John. I couldn't choose between my friends. All of them were calling out my name.

My heart was beating a hundred miles an hour. I couldn't stand up. To my horror, John said, "Your time it up, Percy."

The skeletons prepared to slit Nico's throat. The rope broke on holding the pillar. Grover was crying out. Annabeth began to slip from the ground. Everything was happening at the same time. I grabbed Backbiter. I couldn't take it anymore and just yelled, "STOP!" And time stood still.

**Author's note: How's that for a cliff hanger? Oh, and the John flying thing, if you have read the first two chapter to The Lost Hero, you know that Jason, the main character of the book, can fly. So I guess he's a son of Zeus. If he turns out to be a different demigod then my bad. **

**The next chapter will be the last one. **

**By the way, everyone who's like "y r u killing off all the characters?" Well, think about the last line, "And time stood still." Anyone see a plan coming together?**


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Everything around me was frozen in time. The pillar falling on Thalia had stopped. The skeletons hadn't cut Nico's throat yet. Annabeth had just let go of the floor. I could still see Grover before the rocks crushed him. John was still as a tree in front of me.

"How-?" I stammered.

I looked at Backbiter. It was now a scythe. Kronos's scythe. I thought back to the town and how Backbiter had become a scythe then too. Time had slowed in the town just like now.

I stood up and examined the scythe. This was so cool! I could save my friends! I could pull Annabeth up, I could dig Grover out of the rocks. Kronos's scythe could break the rocks around Thalia's foot so she could get out of the way. The skeletons holding Nico might as well be a pile of bones. And John, I could stab his Achilles spot. He would die. Our powers would return to us. The world would be saved.

"Well done, Percy Jackson," a voice said.

I turned around and saw all the gods standing behind me. "Well, what are you waiting for, Percy Jackson?" Zeus asked.

"Yes, aren't you going to kill John Martin?" Athena said.

I nodded and raised the scythe to John's back. But I couldn't bring it down. I remembered all my friends that had died trying to kill John; Clarisse, Chris, Pollux, Travis, Jake, Katie, Connor...If only I could save them.

Then I looked at the scythe. Kronos _was _the lord of time. Was it possible? Could his scythe turn back time?

"Is something wrong?" I heard my father ask.

I brought the scythe to my side. "I'm not going to kill John."

"What?" Zeus growled.

"Look, most of my friends are dead," I said.

"What is your point? You could save the remaining ones right now," Zeus noted. "And still kill John."

"No, that's not what I meant. Yeah, I could save them all. We could rebuild Camp Half-Blood, but it wouldn't be the same," I told Zeus.

"What are you saying, Jackson?" Ares asked.

"I'm saying that with Kronos's scythe, I can turn back time. Stop _all this _from ever happening. I could stop John's parents being killed so he would never become that. I could save all my other friends from dying," I explained.

Zeus looked like he wanted to protest, but my father stepped forward and put a hand on Zeus's shoulder, "Brother, I think that perhaps it would be best if Percy stopped all this from happening. That would save us the trouble of rebuilding Olympus and the loss of demigod lives all over the world."

Zeus thought about it. Then looked at me, "Very well. Do as you wish, Percy Jackson. Just make sure _that _sword doesn't fall into the wrong hands."

"I'll try my best," I said.

The gods faded away. I threw the scythe spinning into the air. There was a clap of thunder and I was standing in front of John's childhood house. Kronos's scythe was back in my hand. Footsteps were coming toward me. Three teenagers appeared out of the darkness.

They froze when they saw me. The one in the middle took their mask off. It was me. "Who - How -?" he stammered.

I told Thalia, Nico, and my past self everything that would happen if they killed John Martin's parents.

"How do we know you're not Kronos?" Thalia said, pointing to the scythe.

I shrugged and grabbed myself, then held the scythe to his Achilles spot. My past self made a choking sound and said, "It's not Kronos."

I pushed him away from me. "Alright, so you're not Kronos, but how do we know what you say is true?" Thalia questioned.

Kronos's scythe created a window to the future. It showed everything that would happen if John's parents died. "Proof enough for you?" I yawned.

"Well, I don't feel like having my powers taken, then having skeletons slit my throat so I vote we go back," Nico said.

Thalia and my past self agreed. I opened a portal back to their time. Thalia and Nico stepped through. "Hey, I'd like to thank you for warning us," my past self said.

"It's no problem. If Chiron wants to give Backbiter to you, say no thanks and tell him to destroy it, okay?" I asked.

"Sure - but why -" Before he could finish I pushed him through the portal. Now, it was back to my time.

* * *

I woke up in the grass at the center of Camp Half-Blood. Groaning, I rolled on my stomach and looked beside me. Backbiter was laying right next to me. I felt my face. There wasn't a scar. Gently, I picked Backbiter up and tried to stab my hand. The blade bounced off my skin. My Achilles spot still there.

I looked around me. All the cabins were there. Nothing was destroyed. "Percy!" someone yelled.

Annabeth and Chiron came up to me. I stood up. "Where have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you!" Annabeth scolded me.

I couldn't control my actions and just hugged Annabeth. Chiron raised an eye brow. Then I gave Chiron a hug. "Uh...Percy, is something wrong?" Chiron said awkwardly.

I stepped away from him. "No. No, everything is how it should be."

Annabeth pointed to Backbiter. "Percy, where did you get that?"

"It's a, uh, long story," I smiled.

They didn't remember anything. Which I guess was a good thing. In time, I could forget it all too. Clarisse and Chris were walking to the arena. I put Backbiter in my pocket and dashed over to them. I wrapped my arms around both of them, "Thank gods! You guys are alive, too!"

Clarisse pulled my arm off her. "What is your problem, Jackson?" she demanded.

"Nothing!" I said. "I'm just happy you guys are _here!" _

"Where else would we be?" Chris asked.

"Hey, Percy!" Travis and Connor waved.

When I got to them, I said, "I'm sorry."

"For what, man?" Travis asked.

Grover came out of the woods. "Hey, I have to go, but I'll see you guys later," I told Travis and Connor.

I ran over to Grover. "Hey, G-Man!"

"How's it going, Percy?" Grover smiled.

Annabeth came up behind me. "Percy, what's wrong with you? I mean, you just hugged Clarisse, like it was nothing," she told me.

"I'm just happy to see everyone," I shrugged and spotted Pollux trying to turn grapes into wine. "Come on!" I grabbed Annabeth wrist and pulled her along with me.

I clapped Pollux over the shoulder. "Hi, Percy. What's up?" Pollux asked.

"Just wanting to see what you were doing." I shrugged.

Then I looked at his neck. There weren't any scars from the blade going into his throat. "Uh…can I help you?" Pollux looked at me like I was creeper.

Annabeth grabbed my ear and pulled me behind a cabin. "Alright, spill. What's up?"

"Nothing," I lied.

She starred into my eyes. "What's. Wrong?"

I told her everything. Annabeth starred at me like I was crazy. "Do you know how crazy that sounds?" she asked.

I reached in my pocket and uncapped Backbiter. "See this? Watch." Suddenly Backbiter turned into Kronos's scythe.

Annabeth gasped. "It really did happen, didn't it?"

I nodded and brushed a piece of hair out of her face. "I almost lost you."

Annabeth kissed me. I just melted. The thought of almost losing her was torture. How close had she been to death because of me?

"Alright! Break it up!" Jake Mason said.

Annabeth pulled away from me and blushed. "Oh, bite me. You make-out with Katie all the time!" I said.

Jake's face turned bright red and he hurried away from us. Annabeth laughed. "It's true.

"Hey, where are Thalia and Nico?" I asked.

"Nico left yesterday for the Underworld. Thalia is with the Hunters in Spain," Annabeth told me. "Now, come on. We're getting ready to play Capture the Flag."

Kronos's scythe had turned back into Backbiter. "Kronos will probably come after this in the future," I said and put Backbiter in my pocket.

"You're probably right, but we'll worry about that when it happens," Annabeth said.

* * *

Our team won in Capture the Flag. Afterwards all the campers had a party around a campfire. Chiron was grilling burgers and hot dogs, which I had never seen him do.

At the end of the night, I was worn out and went back to my cabin. I flopped on my bunk and fell asleep.

In my dream, I was watching something coming up from the water. It was nighttime, so I couldn't see really well. Whatever it was, it was swimming toward Manhattan.

When it came to the shore it rose from the water. Though, no water dripped off of it. It walked under a street light. It was _me. _But its eyes weren't mine. Its eyes were yellow and its pupils were red.

It came to a bank and busted the door. The two guards there rushed to the entrance. Whatever it was, took both cops out in a swift movement. It walked over to the glass and smashed it. Then it lifted a bag up and put all the jewels in it. Alarms blared. It looked up at a camera and grinned. Then made a peace sign and vanished. Have I ever mentioned how much demigod dreams suck?

**Author's note: And that's a wrap! I have to admit, this is one of my favorite story I've ever written. See? Everything worked out in the end! **

**Possible sequel: Alright, because of Percy's dream about the Shapeshifter thing, I might make a sequel. But if I do, it won't be until I'm done with iFugitive. But if it's not a sequel, it will have the Shapeshifter thing in it.**

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and stuck with the story until the end. This story is dedicated to my two friends Jenny and Katie for helping me come up with the story and ideas. I hope you all liked the ending to Demigod Hunters. Later!**

**-Angel ofDarkness1337**


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